The Clock Struck Midnight
by MR. Nibbles Esq
Summary: Its been 1 year since the fall of Cluster Prime. Jenny seeks a new purpose, and questions her existance. A robot seeks vengence and will awaken an ancient evil that shall threaten humanity, and all life in the galaxy. And the clock struck midnight...
1. Chapter I: The Mind of A Teenage Robot

The hallway echoed with activity as the guards chased after them. Brad did not care he had only one thing on his mind, and that was that his best friend, Jenny Wakemen was about to die. The cold, silver walls reflected the five figures as they ran down the corridor. Gunshots fired from behind them as they ran through the restricted area.

"Stop!" shouted one of the guards through his echoing face-mask, before firing another round at the legs of the fugitives. Mr. Black turned a 180, his arm transforming into some sort of laser contraption in a puff of smoke. He fired the weapon sending volts of electricity flowing into the guard's body, blowing the man in half, showing his comrades in gore. The blood no longer effected Brad, not after this far. Not after all the blood that had been spilt, on his hands and all the blood that will be spilt if he does not stop the death of Jenny.

They turned the corner, a large metal blast door was all that stood between them and the apocalypse.

"It'll be shut tight." Said Black, his arm transforming back into a humanoid arm, and back into faux human flesh.

"Gerardo. Do you think you can crack this?" Spoke Ms. Wakemen.

"Is that a question" Spoke the grotesque Irish, half man-half machine. He lifted his mechanical arm, its four electrodes gouging into the control panel and the information flooded into him.

"Hustle up, we've got company." Spoke Black, as a squad of fully armored soldiers turned the corner. Black transformed his arm into a blast shield, deflecting the bullets and plasma bolts with ease. Gerardo grunted and the door-jam split, opening the portal to the other room. Within it, the saw a comity of observers of numerous species over- looking at the procedure take place on the other side of a bullet proof glass window. Only the human ones turned their gaze from the operation. The others stayed focused on the marvel of science that lay before them.

"Stop it now!" Shouted Brad, his voice longing for breath. "You have no idea what you're doing!"

He made a quick glance at the operating room on the other side. They had Jenny laid down, offline, and her head split open. Directly across from her was the machine that would end mankind. He had never seen on before, they were silver endoskeletons that looked as if they could stand 7ft tall.

"By Khaine." Cursed his alien friend "Stop! You'll kill us all!"

"Jenny!" Shouted Brad

A sharp pain shot up the back of his neck as the butt of a gun was driven deep into it. The others in the party were taken down in a similar method. Black didn't go down at first, the over-seers scattered to the corner of the room as the fugitives were beaten and pulled away from the scene. As Brad lingered out of consciousness, he saw a flash of bluish green light fill up the room.

"Jenny," He whispered again as he shut his eyes, and fainted from reality.

And the clock struck midnight.

_4 weeks earlier_

He looked up from the ashen ruins, the flames lashed out towards his body. The sky was dead, the sun was black. The people of Tremorton could do nothing without their patron goddess. He could do nothing as well. He watched as a young man had his flesh ripped off by one of the invaders. The machine-man had claws instead of fingers, used for scissoring apart bodies.

He wept as the warriors marched down the streets shooting arcs of green light from their glowing weapons. A crowd of people were reduced to ashen skeletons as their atoms were ripped from their bodies. He dropped to his knees and screamed as the fate of this once great world was shown to him in excruciating detail.

A figure now stood above him, small insect like machines flew around him. He knew exactly what he was as he looked up seeing the silhouette of the cause of all of this chaos and death. It stood, broad shouldered and emotionless. Green light of his minion's weapons reflected off of his metal body. He could do nothing but stare into its glowing eyes with scorn as it lifted him from by his neck.

Its metal claws squeezed down on his windpipe, forcing his breath from his lungs like a tube of toothpaste. As he died in the hands of this ancient, silent enemy, it cocked its head, and for the first time in millennia, it spoke proudly:

"It's 97 degrees out today so make sure you wear lots of sun block because it's going to be a scorcher in Tremorton. Now for those of you who are fans of the oldies, here's 'Behind Blue Eyes' by the Who"

"Huh?" Responded the man as his breath re-entered his lungs. The machine dropped him into blackness and the world around him faded.

Ben jolted awake, sitting straight up. Beads of sweat rolled down his pale flesh. He looked around his apartment and notice that he was still alive, and nothing was ablaze. He rubbed his face and punched the radio on his night stand blindly. He sat in a daze for a few more moments to really allow his mind to re-enter reality. He closed his lavender eyes, and began pacing his breathing in a meditative trance for a few moments.

When he opened them, his body had completely cooled, his slender, yet athletic body was riddled with goose-bumps. He looked at his clock and realized he had to be at school for the first time in 30 minutes.

"So primitive" he said to himself, and rolled out of bed. He ran a brush through his medium length, black hair and put on his clothes. For a teenager he dressed rather sharply. He wore a white, button up shirt, black jeans, and a navy blue dress jacket. He looked at the mirror, believing his own façade. He grabbed his blue sunglasses that really did nothing to protect his eyes from the sun. The sat so low on his nose and they lenses were so small that they were obviously for looks. Yet looks can be deceiving.

Ben placed the non-sunglasses on his face and headed out the door and into the north-western town of Tremorton to be a high-school student for the first time.

Brad leaned against the light pole outside of the Wakemen home, listening to his iPod, waiting for his best friend to come out so they could walk to school together, like they always did. He was glad that Spring Break had ended, surprisingly. It meant that not only his senior year was approaching its end, but that his friend Jenny had returned from Seattle. She never said why she went, only that she needed to. She had been acting weird around him lately. Actually, she's just been weird to everyone. Not that normalcy is a good thing, but being her best friend he'd hope she's tell him when something was amiss.

At last the door opened, and he saw his mechanized friend walk out her house. He could see her talking to her mom, but couldn't hear anything. He pulled turned the music off but left them in so it didn't seem like he was evesdropping, and wearing a pair of sunglasses made it look like he wasn't even paying attention.

He didn't hear much, only that her mom was yelling at her, again. Ever since she used that government funding for a body reconstruction, thing between her and her mother were never the same. Who could blame Dr. Wakeman? Her daughter got money from the federal government and she used it for plastic surgery, in a sense. He had to admit, she did look good, even for a machine. She was… curvy, seemed to be the best way to say it. And now that she was wearing normal clothing, it kind of accentuated that.

She stormed away from her mom, and walked over toward Brad. He rectified himself and pulled his ear-buds out.

"Goodbye, mom!" She said with venom in her voice. "Hey Brad."

"Hey, Jen." He looked over his shoulder, her mother just shook her head and stepped back into the house. "More issues with you old-lady?"

"Yea." She said without taking her gaze off of the ground as they began their short walk to school.

"Is there something I can-"

"I don't want to talk about it okay?" She snapped. This time looking up at him.

"Okay! Fine! Sorry for wanting to help!" He knew she hated when he tried to guilt trip her. She didn't take bullshit like that. He kind of liked having a dominant female as a friend. Jenny was the kind of girl he'd date, but he never would. He never had any good reasons, just that he never would.

"So," He spoke again, cautiously. "How was spring break?"

No response.

"Well I had fun" said Brad "You missed it. Tuck tried an Indy on his skateboard by jumping off of this ramp like three times the size of something _I_ would jump. Landed it! Ate it on a rock though."

Jenny smiled

"Hah! So it does feel"

"What's that supposed to mean?" the smile fading away.

"Nothing it was just a joke"

"'_It_ does feel'? What did you mean by that?" She stopped walking.

Brad tipped his sunglasses down a bit. "You're serious. Jen, you know I don't think of you as a…"

"As a what?" She demanded

"You know… a-"

"An object? A piece of fiction?"

"No, that's not what I…" Brad tried to defend himself but she wouldn't take it.

"Whatever, let's just… go." Said the young woman, stomping past Brad.

Brad followed her, but just stayed a foot behind. Maybe it's that time of the month, he thought jokingly. But sadly he knew that something was amiss. Jenny was going through something tough, and Brad doesn't see it as a rebellious phase. He sees something much more than that. But what? Why would Jenny go to have all these procedures done to her? Just to look prettier? To wear human clothing? What was going on in the mind of this teenage robot?


	2. Chapter II: Ben

Hey, Nibbles here. I may have forgotten to put an intro here last time, but I felt it only enhanced the chapter. I'm going to start off by saying that this is my first ever fan fiction. This was designed off of a mix of MLAATR and Warhammer 40,000. (Believe me I'll make it work) To me this is a writing challenge, and I may just do some more bazaar crossover in the future to help tone my writing skills.

It is not meant to be an epic saga, it's more or less something I'm planning on writing when I'm bored. So there's no definite time when updates will be. Reviews are welcome and appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own My Life as a Teenage Robot, nor do I own Warhammer 40,000. Any depiction of the characters in any way that is negative on the creators is merely out of good fun, nothing more. (Seriously, what's worse? The Nickelodeon or Games Workshop Secret Police burning your house down?)

* * *

Jenny didn't really talk to Brad most of the day. He felt bad, but what's worse is he didn't even know what he did! She just yelled at him for making a lame joke on their way to school. He wanted to apologize but that bit of manly pride was stopping him. Even if he didn't, Jenny was a tough girl, she'll be over it by tomorrow… he hoped. It wasn't until the end of 6th period that she started talking to him again.

"Who's that?" She asked brad, looking at a keenly dressed man, easily 17 or 18 sitting in the back of the class.

"I don't know. I'm assuming new student?" said Brad, answering her question with a question.

"New student? This late in the year? And look at him! He's actually _reading_ the material. Ms. Campbell doesn't even assign anything in this class. And another thing, look at the way he's dressed, did someone die or is he just-"

"I'm sorry" interrupted Brad boldly

"What? Did you kill someone?" she said jokingly

"No, about this morning. My joke was insensitive. I apologize"

Jenny smiled and blushed a bit.

"Wow, I feel dumb. I thought you were mad at me. I mean, I way over reacted. I…. I have something I need to tell you." She said blushing even more.

"What?" Said Brad with a mix of intrigue and worry.

"When I went to Seattle-"

"What the fuck is this? We got an old fashioned boy on our hands" loudly interrupted Nolan Hudson, star quarterback and #1 ass hole. He was standing over the new kid, whom of which, did not even look up from his book.

"Did your mom dress you or something? Or did someone die?"Said the foot-ball player. A roll of chuckles filled the room. Jenny chuckled a bit, because it was her who said that first. Brad skewered his face a bit in disapproval.

"Yes, actually, it was my mother who died." The young man's voice was incredibly smooth and majestic. Almost musical in its own way. The roll of chuckles was met by a short wave of gasps, mainly of guilt. One of which was Jenny.

"Seriously?" said the Jock

"No but your heathen brain believed it. Now if you don't mind I'm studying and you are agitating me." The new kid's rebuttal was so well delivered that the massive jock reeled back before slamming the new guy's book shut and grabbing him by the collar.

"Heathen, eh? What are you some kind of funny guy? Huh? You think you're funny?" The choler rising in the jocks voice. Brad made eye contact with Jenny in a kind of, "are you going to do something" kind of way.

"Yes, heathen. Can you spell it. Or is troglodyte a more suitable word?" The kid made eye contact for the first time.

"What the fuck did you say to me?" said Nolan, picking the new guy on his feet. The new guy had to have stood a head taller than Nolan.

"Trog-lo-dyte," said the sharply dressed underdog, his voice confident and fluent. Jenny looked at Brad their eyes met in an "I think he's got this" kind of way. "Now release my collar or I will be forced to make you."

The jock reeled his arm back and swung at the new kid. With impossible speed, he caught the punch, twisted Nolan's arm and used the momentum to send him face first into the plaster desk. The desk shattered under the force and blood gushed from the athlete's broken face. Still, the sharply dressed kid seemed unmoved, as he picked his book up, brushed the dust off and looked at the teacher, who just now took her elderly face out of her romance novel.

"I warned him" said the man, his voice like a harp. No one said a thing. Jenny and Brad's eyes met again, this time in a "Holy Shit" kind of way.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the class. The new guy simply waltzed out of the class, and no one did a thing. The only sound was the bell, and the painful groans of Nolan. As the new kid crossed across the jaw dropped room, he looked into the crowd, and his lavender eyes met Jenny's. He gave her a half smile and a wink and continued out of the class. Her face is almost completely blue from imitated blushing. Eventually, Brad made the first move, standing up and grabbing his things.

"Well that was weird" he said "Come on Jenny"

"Oh. Right," she stood up, still blushing.

The rest of the class followed in suite, except the infuriate Nolan who stood up, snorting in hateful agony, stumbling around a bit from what one would assume is a moderate concussion. The two friends left the room and made their way to their lockers, Jenny's mouth still slacked and her cheeks a bit flushed. At their lockers, they met up with Sheldon.

"Hey guys! What's up?" his gaze fell upon Jenny "Looking good as always Jenny."

"Yea." She said, lost in thought.

"Yea? What's wrong with her?" asked Sheldon.

"Some guy winked at her." Answered Brad for the inanimate Jenny.

"So, I do that all the time" responded Sheldon

"Yea but you didn't slam Nolan Hudson's head through a desk either." Spoke Brad, almost caustic. The group sat in silence for a second.

"What?" questioned Sheldon breaking the silence.

"Yea. He moved like fucking Bruce Lee or something. I've never seen a guy move that fast." Said Brad.

"Yea. He was amazing." Said Jenny, almost bubbly.

"Amazing? Is she serious? If violence is so attractive to you, then why do you fight to stop it?" Said Sheldon cynically. Jenny closed her locker and scowled at him. "Never mind."

The next few days were a bit fractal. All that Jenny wanted to talk about was that new guy. She must have fallen hard for him. He was suave, good looking, intelligent, obviously athletic. Brad felt almost jealous, he didn't know why. It's not like he had his eyes on Jenny. That's Sheldon's game. It's not like he hasn't thought about it, but, Jenny is his best friend… and not human.

It was Wednesday that the new kid finally approached Jenny, god knows she didn't have the gonads to go and talk to him first. She was at her locker at lunch, looking through her backpack. He was sharply dressed as always, his gorgeous eyes peering over his bluish-purple sunglasses.

"Hey," he said, leaning against Brad's locker. Jenny blushed.

"Uh, hi." She said awkwardly.

"Its Jenny right?"

"Yes, yes it is." She smiled.

"I've heard about you. XJ9 to the academic world. You're pretty amazing."

"Me, no. I'm just me." she turned behind her locker door to hide her girlish squealing.

"Well, I'm Ben, just Ben. I'd like to know 'just me' a little better. I'm new around here, and it would be an honor if the glorious Jennifer 'XJ9' Wakemen gave me a tour. Maybe of a diner, and a movie theatre afterwards?"

She giggled, and immediately reacted.

"That… That'd be great." She turned to him, he was smiling. His teeth were perfect, in fact everything about him was perfect. As if he were made not created.

"Groovy. Is Friday, 5:00, okay?" spoke the harp voiced Ben.

"Yes!" Jenny yelled, but quickly caught herself "Yea, that'd be great"

"Awesome. See you then, love."

Jenny waved the man goodbye and then collapsed to the wall, her heart filled with butterflies. She felt like she was the luckiest girl in the world. She looked at the mirror that hung on her locker door, seeing the very attractive girl within its reflection. Her body now had definition, and was smooth and slender. She felt accepted.

"Gerardo I owe you own." She said to herself

-----------------

The machine scarab moved over the dead rock surface, picking through the rubble. Four limbs worked in unison to kind the vital piece to the survival of his race. The moon was barren and black. Charred by war from long before his time. He finished with the pile and floated on the low gravity to another pile of rubble. Off in the distance he saw many other scarabs looking as well. Their bright green or deep red a stark contrast to the ashen waste of the moon.

"Damn, there is no chance we're going to find that damn artifact." Said the scarab, slumping in exhaustion.

"What was that?" Said a deep, southern- accented voice from behind him. The beetle rolled over, his robot eyes widened as his sight matched his hearing. A tall, humanoid robot stood behind him. The robot was sleek and his outer plating was smooth and plated in a now tarnished gold. His face was featureless, excluding the two slits that he used to see with.

"Uh…" said the scarab warrior, terrified "I was just saying how I'm getting back to work, Cassias."

"That's what I thought you said." The massive machine leaned down at the scarab, and bellowed in a hateful voice "You're lucky you're one of the few that survived the counter-invasion on Cluster Prime, because if it were any other case, I'd tear you limb from limb. Got that?"

The beetle nodded.

"Yes sir," said the Cluster Drone rather shaken. The machine man turned on his heel and went to oversee the other excavators "but one quick question."

"Hmm?" Cassius didn't even turn around.

"What are we looking for again?" Cassius turned and marched to the scarab, holding out his palm forcefully. His arm opened up and a hologram of a green orb appeared.

"That! Do you have any more questions you sniveling worm?" spat the one called Cassius.

"No sir" shivered the scarab.

This time Cassius's feet ignited and flame propelled him into the air, and over the dozens of Cluster Drones that dug for a sacred artifact. Cassius landed on a large cliff, above the other worker drones. His palm opened up yet again, this time the hologram is that of a robot woman.

"It is not much longer my Queen. You shall be awakened again, and we will have our love again." He clenched his fist and the device closes. "And we shall reap vengeance on the humans and XJ9."

Suddenly a voice of a drone crackled in his ear.

"Boss, you might want to come see this."

Cassius flew with great speed to the location the call came from. Upon his arrival, he noticed the entire working force of this moon was surrounding a huge pillar of rock. Cassius landed and pushed through the crowd of Cluster Drones.

"What? What the hell is it? What did you-" Cassius's voice was stifled as he noticed the massive symbol carved into the rock. It had long since been eroded but compared to the images he had seen, the symbol was spot on. A small circle with 6 lines that petruding from it, the bottom longer than the rest, and the top formed into a semi-circle. Cassius laughed a laugh that boomed for miles.

"We found it! HA! It does exist!" Cassius taking a moment to soak in his findings. "This is the entrance to the tomb of the Necrons."


	3. Chapter III: Deeds of Crimson

How's it going Fanfic enthusiast? Nibbles here, the 3rd installment of the "Clock Struck Midnight" series has finally arrived. A couple of questions have been brought to my attention and I'd like to point said questions out in my "Fanfic FAQ.":

Q: How many OC's are in this story?

A: There are (So far) quite a few. Ben is an OC; Cassius, Vexus's new right hand man is an OC (It shall be explained); Gerardo will make his second appearance in this installment, as will Mr. Black and an additional OC Mr. White. So… a lot…. And more to come :D

Q: Who is Ben Supposed to represent?

A: No one.

Q: Be honest.

A: That wasn't really a question, more of a demand.

Q: Okay, who does it _REALLY_ represent?

A: In a minor way, he looks like me. And I know that's the a-typical Fanfic strategy, and that wasn't my goal. 1) I'm not THAT "ruggedly handsome", nor badass. 2) Jenny in my Fanfic may be attractive, but I still imagine my dick in a garbage press. So I really wouldn't want to date her. (Though I did date a girl named Jenny o.0) 3) my voice is like Bob Dylan w/ throat cancer, nowhere near "harp" level. 4) I'm not a [+++Deleted by Inquisition+++], and whistled for a baboon.

Q: How often were these questions asked?

A: Once, by me.

A: No

Q: Is it true that you are psychic?

Q: I'm going to the Store do you want anything?

A: Nah, I've got enough turtles already.

Now without further ado, "Chapter III: Deeds of Crimson" Enjoy, C&C, etc.

PS: Disclaimer: I do not own MLAATR nor Warhammer 40,000. As well, this story is intensely graphic an is not for the faint of heart. (Consider that a constant throughout _ANYTHING_ I do.)

It was late. Jenny shouldn't have made this trip so late at night. If her mom finds out that she snuck out at midnight, she'll be off-lined in a heartbeat. But she felt ready for this procedure, and she wanted to get it done specifically for Ben, and herself. He pig-tail jets carried her at mach speeds over the US plains. She had reached the Seattle metropolitan area in less than 20 minutes. The clouds suddenly converged on her, moisture built up on her white, metal body. The thick, grey rain clouds blocked her vision. She had to slow down and go into the lower atmosphere.

She came to a dead stop, the broken sound barrier caught up to her, the sound boomed into the massive city that engulfed modern Washington. The sonic boom blew the clouds and rain past Jenny, drenching her. She felt nothing, her clothes, however, were now sopping wet. She wore black boots with a decent heel to them, a light blue summer dress, and a heavy black trench coat over that. The water cut through her coat like it was nothing, soaking her dress. She grunted angrily but didn't fret long; she was on a time limit.

Her internal map navigated the massive city of Seattle. A holographic image of the city appeared within her eyes. She saw a specific building highlighted red as opposed to the neon green of the rest of the town. She followed the map to her target location; she recognized the area all too well. It was slummy, gangs ran ramped through the town, illegal alien species roamed through the dimly lit district in large packs.

Jenny Roared over head until she saw the building that matched the glowing red one. It was a pub for mercenaries and alien refugees. She landed outside the door. A huge robot stood outside, bouncing people from the premises. He was shelled in a massive, purplish-grey hull, with a bulky chest of black that resembled a wife-beater. He looked at her, his glowing orange eyes instantly recognizing her cute-pee face.

"Go ahead Jenny" the automaton boomed, stepping aside to let the teenager through.

"Thanks, Rex." She said, giving a slight smile as she stepped through the portal.

The group within varied greatly. Some large, some small, some were alien, somewhere human, some were robots. All carried a similar trademark; they all had a biotic of some sort, whether it is a limb or an eye or a series of internal organs. The man who did all of this work was one of the best, also the most wanted by the Federal Government.

Jenny stepped up to the bar, its bartender absent. She leaned on the bar naively, sticking her rear out a bit. The mostly male crowd turned their heads in intrigue. A few threw their keys onto the floor to get a better view of "the goods", but disappointedly saw nothing. Jenny knew what they were doing. It turned her stomach a bit, but also flattered her surprisingly. She's never turned heads before, that was, until Gerardo came in.

A chitinous, bi-pedal, bug creature immerged from the back room. It too recognized the robot girl. Jenny gave it a nice, but uncomfortable smile as it approached her and spoke:

"Back so soon, Jenny?" its mandibles clicked.

"Not for anything big, I just need to talk to Gerardo." She said.

"He's in a meeting, but I can tell him you're here." The creature clicked

"Sure, thanks." She said, again with a grossed, awkward smile.

The creature returned to the back room after filling up some glasses with some questionable fluids and passing them to a robot waitress. Shortly after the creature left, she heard the whirl of Gerardo's bone saw, followed by the screams of his half-conscious client. Jenny, yet again naively, removed her sopping wet jacket and trapped it over her arm, revealing the spaghetti straps that held her dress up. This caused one extremely drunken man to gain the balls to approach the famous robot girl, despite the warnings of his friends.

"Hey, baby," Slurred the drunk "What is a fine specimen such as you doing in a slummy part of town such as this?"

"I'm seeing Gerardo." She said emotionlessly to the man coming on to her.

He was a hideous thing; his right eye was replaced by a grievous bionic one that engulfed most of that side of his face. His teeth were sparse, his head was balding, and his skin was dirty. If she had them, her senses would have been primly offended.

"Hun, you don't need any bit of work on that fine body of yours" he slurred, eyeballing her features.

"Thanks," she said coldly "You do."

"Hah! I like 'em feisty!" The man boldly grabbing her mechanical bum, Jenny yelped and the bar averted their gaze from what Jenny might, and could do to this man "Whatdaya say we blow this joint and you come back to ma place? It ain't far."

"Sure," Jenny said smiling.

Her smooth, white hand lightly grazed the man's crotch. His eyes widened with excitement. A small probe rose from Jenny's forefinger and sent 1,000 volts of electricity into his genitals. The man grabbed himself and fell to the floor in agonizing pain.

"Call me when you can get an errection in 6 months." She said coldly, turning her gaze to the door the bartender-thing disappeared into. The drunk's buddies dragged the man back to their table, which of which was losing consciousness. Rolling laughter filled the bar at the man's expense; the few women (or woman-oids) applauded the mighty XJ-9. Jenny didn't pay any attention; she just looked at the door, waiting for the bartender-thing to return. After a few more moments, the bug-man emerged from the door.

"He's ready to see you, Miss." Its mandibles clicked.

Jenny said thank you as the bug lifted the panel keeping separated the bar from behind the rest of the room. She walked through the rotted, wooden door and found herself in a gritty dark holding room. A corridor on the right was illuminated, the whirring of machines and running water coming from deep within. She followed the whirring down the corridor; it was dimly lit by lamps that were attached to the ceiling. She walked past several rooms, in some people were resting, in others, she could hear the moans and screams of sexual activity behind closed doors. Finally, the second to last door was where she wished to be. This one was brightly illuminated, and the whirring had finally become quite loud. As she turned the corner, she knocked on the open door, politely.

"Come in, Jennifer," Spoke the Irishman within, as if through a fan. "You know you're always welcome here, lass."

"Hey Gerardo. How are you?" she said

"Deadly, and yourself?" responded the man, his voice metallic

"Fine".

As she turned into the room, she saw a very muscular man hunched over a sink. He was tan, and extremely tall. One would assume his hair was black and done into corn-rows. But upon looking closely on this individual, one would notice that he has no hair at all, but they are, in fact, black wires that are leading from his neck and upper back into his brow and other places. He stood shirtless, several black ports jutted from his back, they had been sealed with a low-cost synth-skin, and appeared to be gruesomely scabbed over. A massive mechanical limb was extended over his shoulder and into the sink, where he was washing the blood off.

The second thing Jenny saw was a dentist's chair that had been modified for Gerardo's needs. It was doused in blood and chunks of meat. Her faux senses could tell that the air was thick with elements consisting to that of a meat packing plant. This information made her tense up as her mind perceived the room to smell of meat.

"Sorry, Jennifer, I just barely started cleaning up. You can take the weight off your legs if you'd like." Said Gerardo

"N-no thanks, I'm okay" she stammered attempting not to be rude to the bionic surgeon, for not understanding him.

"I mean sit down, you bloody knacker." Spoke the machine man sarcastically, still washing his tools.

"Oh," said Jenny embarrassed. "I'm good."

Suddenly she heard a distinct sound of buzzing flies. She stepped closer to the gore covered seat. On the other side, a collection of flies has begun to buzz. She peered over and clasped her hand over her mouth in horror. Several human limbs and organs were sitting in a tin bath, soaking in their own blood.

"Whoops," said the Irish semi-human kicking the tin bath with a booted foot under a desk. "Sorry about that, lass."

Jenny looked up at the half breed and her face tweaked as it always does when she sees his face. From the nose down, his flesh, muscle and all, was removed leaving only a bleached skull and several wires in its place. His left eye had been replaced by a large tri-focal, each of the three green eyes rotating to perform specific task. His right eye was all that remained of his human flesh, and the single hazel eye that shown he was still human, or at least humanoid.

"Please, sit." He said, throwing a large towel over the blood stains.

She sat and crossed her legs daintily. He too, pulled up a chair and sat.

"What's the craic, Jennifer?" he asked, putting his massive black boots on the end of the dentist's chair.

"Well, I was asked out today," she giggled, quick finding a link to Irish Idioms "So I guess that's good news."

He nodded and his eye squinted. A gesture that she could only perceive as smile.

"So what's that got to do with the price of tea in china?" he asked rudely.

"I… I think I want… to go through with it." She said, beginning to blush. His eye widened.

"The procedure… the one we spoke of?"

She nodded.

"Jeanie Mac!" cursed the Irishman, standing up grabbing his head-wires "You realize I can triple my bounty if I did that?"

"I will pay you the dividend, and-"

"Listen, Jen," interrupted the man-thing "I like you. You're my favorite client and my biggest success story."

A long pause brought the grimace on Jenny's face to a mile frown.

"But I don't think you're ready for such a thing. I mean, according to your design schematic you're only 17. Legally I'm only aloud to do this risky, delicate and… sexual procedure to 25 year olds."

"Since when does legal matter to you?" barked Jenny.

"When it involves Earth Defense Unit XJ-9, that's when!" the amplifier on the speaker within his skeletal jaw shot up. He twisted a black knob on his chest and a resounding "whoop" of his speaker followed. "Just because the Cluster fell doesn't mean you aren't still wanted by the bloody federal shinners."

"So you're saying you won't do it?" Said Jenny disappointedly.

"I'm saying you're not ready," Gerardo sat next to the robot and rapped his mechanical arm around her. "You're willing to literally transform your body for one lad? He can't be that worth it. And what about that other feller you spoke of. You know, the one we did all this to impress"

"He is! He's absolutely perfect and…" she paused and hung her head low "I'm nothing,"

"Listen, love," the Irishman said, sliding away from Jenny "You're a nice gal and all, but I'm not really good at this kind of stuff. It's all high school mumbo-jumbo anyway. You'll forget about this lad in a few short years anyway."

"That doesn't explain why every man in my town turns their head to me and but the only one I care about. And finally I found a guy who likes me for who I am. Don't I deserve that?"

She looked up at him, her eyes were distressed. If she could, she'd be crying.

"Feckin'-A," cursed Gerardo, he gazed into her eyes. "Fine, I'd prepare the nerves for next weekend. The synth-flesh won't be here until then, regardless."

"Oh, thank you!" Shouted Jenny throwing herself into Gerardo's arms, her voice seemingly cracking "You're my hero."

"Aye," patting the extremely heavy girl on the back.

Jenny stood up and grabbed her coat, looking back at Gerardo. She had a huge smile on her face, her bionic eyes seemed to glimmer as if full of tears. She gleefully turned on her heel and clacked down the hallway. After a few short moments, he heard her soon-to-be-removed pigtail rockets lift her into the sky.

"Take care, Jen," he whispered to himself.

Gerardo walked over to the mirror. He saw the reflection of his misshapen self. He thought, _Funny, she wanst desperately to be human and I want to remove this vile skin._ He chuckled and turned around, grabbing his red robe from his coat rack. He walked to a seemingly normal closet and opened it. He put on his robe and closed the door behind him. He knelt down before the shining idol in front of him, and began to mutter a few words of prayer at the massive idol. The language he spoke was rare, and almost dead, but not to him. Not to the followers of the Omnissiah.


	4. Chapter IV: Behind Blue Eyes

_**Hey, Mr. Nibbles Esq. reporting. I've really been pumping these out. I'm getting into the characters and the plot is on the verge of its expansion. **_

_** As always, I do not own Warhammer or MLaaTR. I also warn ye with a weak heart. This is a graphic, vulgar and in some cases, sexual story. **_

_** Enjoy Chapter IV, C&C all that jazz:**_

Jenny sat nervously in front of restaurant, the moon radiant. She clutched her hand bag with tearing force, her date was to be here soon and she had no idea what to do. She thought about asking her mom, but she wouldn't help her. Her mother wasn't the most hospitable person when it came to these subjects, and she was extremely hostile toward Jenny. Jenny knew she should feel guilty about doing all of this work behind her back, and she knew that once she got this procedure tomorrow, there would be no turning back. The moment her mother finds out, Jenny will be kicked out of her home for sure. Maybe Gerardo was right, maybe she wasn't ready for this procedure. Maybe she did need to wait for the right man and make sure that he loved her for who she is first.

Jenny leaned against a planter outside of the marvelous restaurant. She wore a deep purple/bluish dress that ruffled at the bottom, and a suede, navy blue jacket was over that, mainly for looks. Her shoes were those odd Chucks that went up to her shins, these too were navy blue. She looked off into the distance, pondering thought. The light from the doorway into the dining house was hitting her at a near perfect angle. This caught the eye of a very lucky man.

"Jenny?" Spoke the harp "Is that you?"

She turned to her right to see a suave looking gentleman approach from the shadows. He wore an all black suit with a red tie. His small sunglasses, which matched his tie, sat on the end of his nose, barely cresting the bottom of his gorgeous, deep-blue eyes. His hair had been slicked back, and a black fedora sat atop of his head. Jenny smiled at her date.

"Hey, Ben." She said, her voice increasing in pitch.

"You- you look beautiful." Ben said approaching the teenage robot, and grabbing her hand, her face flushed blue "Shall we go in?"

She just smiled and nodded, letting him lead the way. He opened the door for her and took off his hat as he entered, real classy. The chrome, faceless android stood behind the podium at the doorway.

"Table for two? It will be a thirty minute wait." Spoke the machine emotionlessly

"We have a reservation, under Johnson." Said Ben with confidence, almost as if he were concentrating on his words

The robot stared blankly into space before looking back at the tall man and the machine girl that held his arm.

"Ah, yes, Johnson, right this way." The robot grabbed two menus and rolled on a single wheel that met where a human's feet would be, leading the couple to a table in the center of the restaurant.

"Wow, I didn't know you made reservations." Said Jenny, looking up at her tall date.

He simply angled his eyes down at her and winked, with a little smile. Jenny giggled and squeezed onto his arm more snuggly until they reached their table. He, here as well, pulled out the chair for her. Class such as this man is rarely found in a modern age. Jenny loved every minute she spent with this guy, even though she barely knew him.

"Can I get either of you anything to drink?" spoke their emotionless waiter.

"I'll take a quart of unleaded ignition fluid, if you have it." Jenny replied.

"Sadly we only have leaded." He said without such suggestion of "sadness"

"Oh, why not, I'm feeling daring tonight." The two teens laughed.

"And for you sir," the machine said.

"Just water, please. No lemon." Ben said, turning his face to see the robot waiter. He was clean shaven to the furthest extent. Not a single blemish or imperfection touched his body. Jenny bit her lip a bit as she eye balled her extremely attractive date while he wasn't looking.

Over the next hour, the two talked about everything. Slowly Jenny began to find out things about this amazing character, most things of which, they shared unmistakable parallels. They both liked classic rock, they both thought the Who was the shit, despite its unfathomable age, they both were very optimistic, they both trash talked the Crust cousins, they both laughed at each other's wit. It was as if they were made for each other.

Shortly their food had come and they began on their dishes. Jenny didn't order much, a piece of grilled chicken and a side of vegetables; he ordered a chef's salad. Both hardly touched their meals, Jenny didn't eat much anyway, she only needed one bite for her artificial taste-buds to sense the ingredients and determine the flavor. He seemed to dislike his meal, for every bite he took, his face wrier. He also seemed to be strangely enthralled with Jenny. Just by the way he occasionally brushed his hand against her own and, in some cases, held it.

"So the guy stood about four feet above me, right?" told Jenny about her adventures during Cluster Prime counter-invasion, "He had these wicked sharp talons that, like, took out half a platoon. And I caught one as it swung at me, lifted him up and punched right through his thorax. The entire company I was leading just stared at me like, 'what the fuuuck?' True story."

The two laughed.

"Wow, Jen, you're amazing." Said the man opposite her, sweetly

"Nah, it's just what I was made to do," she said modestly "Now that it's all over, I now have the chance to live like a _normal _teenager's life. You know, hang with friends without worrying about an alien invasion, deal with all of that high school mellow-drama… maybe have a boyfriend?"

She put an affliction on the word boyfriend, and looked at him with a suggestive smile. He smiled back.

"I think that can be arranged." He responded, causing a mild blushing in Jenny's cheeks.

Suddenly, Ben's watch began to beep.

"Oh crap," he said looking at it and pressing a button to stop the alarm. "Its 9:00, our movie is at 9:15. We need to leave."

"Well we already paid, let's book it." Said Jenny.

"Sounds good," he stood up, and then stumbled, grabbing his stomach for a second "Actually, just go wait outside, I'll be out there in like 1 minute"

"Okay, but don't leave me waiting." She said cutely.

"I could never do that." He said turning with haste to the men's room

Ben lifted his head from the toilet, spitting saliva and vomit from his mouth. His pallet was now raw from such harsh, exotic foods.

"Damn food." He said standing up "This is fine cuisine?"

"Is everything satisfactory, sir?" spoke a menial droid that manned the restroom.

"Yea," Ben lied "Just peachy."

He stepped out of the stall and looked at his watch as he removed it. He'd been in the stall for 2 minutes and 12 seconds. Good timing. He quick pushed up his sleeves and washed his hands and face, gargling water. He felt a presence behind him and looked up to at the mirror to tell the drone to back off again.

His eyes widened as he noticed the figure was indeed not a droid at all. It was a tall being, armored in red armor, with a massive, smooth, white backpack. The being had a coned helm of white and its expressionless visor was red. Its glowing green lenses peered angrily at him through the reflection. He was tall, taller than Ben.

"Are you enjoying your date?" boomed the figure, sarcastically.

"Yes," responded Ben, looking back down to rinse his hands "Yes I am."

"Mistress Ayala grows tiresome of your lack of urgency. She wonders if your prolonged stay with the Mon'kei have proven damaging to your mental and physical health." The warrior spoke elegantly, almost harp-like

"Does she?" he said grabbing a towel from then now destroyed service-droid and drying his hands. "That's sweet of her to care."

"Listen, vermin," challenged the warrior "I do not know the path of the seer but I know that you are going down one that is more than likely the path of the failure. I do not tolerate failure. You shall succeed or by the decree of Mistress Ayala I am granted the honor of performing martial law on you."

"No, you listen, Fortunatus." Growled Ben, casting his towel to the floor "This girl is actually falling for Ben, and she thinks he feels the same way. I'm not like you, I have a heart. I can't necessarily befriend a girl, ask her on a date and reveal the lies I've been spitting the entire time I've known her, now can I?"

"Ideological customs of this planet were to be cast aside for this-"

"Tell Ayala I'm working on it." Ben angrily turned heel and stormed out of the bathroom, the door swung out, the one called Fortunatus peered at him through bright green lenses. The door swung in, and the figure was gone.

After allowing Jenny to fly them to the movie theater, via her pigtail-rockets, the two finally arrived at their destination. They got into the movie right after the previews had ended. Jenny was a little bummed that she missed her favorite part of going to the movies. Ben sensed this upset aura and placed the middle armrest up, moving in close to her. She liked that, and laid her head happily on her date's shoulder. A bittersweet smile appeared on the face of the one called Ben.

The movie was pathetic, even though Ben had seen it before. One of those feel-good, romantic-comedy, date movie types. The kind you see only to cuddle up and make out with the person you're with. He noticed that several other couples were doing just that, as did Jenny. She lightly caressed his hand, in a suggestive manner, without taking her eyes off of the screen. He wrapped his arm around her and essentially put her in his lap.

They movie was at the "first kiss" scene, the couple's eyes met, their longing for each other proven despite all of the "comical mishaps" of the entire first act. Jenny looked up at him, her eyes were too longing, he began to feel an intense guilt shot up his spine, as well as primal desire.

"Hey," she whispered "This is lame."

"What?" he asked, worried he had offended her

"This movie. Let's go movie hop into something R rated" said Jenny with a wink

She stood up, holding Ben's hand, and exited out of the theater. They passed a couple that were practically dry humping in the middle of the movie theater. Jenny caught view of it, and as they passed he arm instinctively tightened on Ben's hand. Her immense strength could have broken his hand, and arm even, easily. But it didn't, because it wasn't that kind of squeeze. It was a signal.

As they walked around the surprisingly barren theater, they found a movie that suited their tastes. It was a remake of an old black and white sci-fi movie. He'd seen it before too; he's seen this movie a lot in particular. The protagonist was attempting to escape from his own friends as their minds were taken over by aliens. He didn't know who to trust, they all acted the same, and all looked the same. But on the inside they were different; they were unjust, and evil. The movie was just gruesome; people were mindlessly throwing themselves onto the armored van of the protagonist and ending their lives for the sake of a greater cause. They were blinded, loyal, devout, and void of free will. Ben clenched Jenny's hand hard this time. He had forgotten that they had been holding hands throughout the whole movie. She looked at him, with a bit of worry on her face.

"Are you okay?" she whispered.

"Yea." He responded "Just got a little spooked"

She laughed a bit, only to receive an angered "shush" from the crowd.

"You? Scared? I find that hard to believe."

"Why is that?"

"Well," Jenny took a second to collect her thoughts. "You're strong, and smart, and very level headed. You don't seem to me like the type who gets spooked over a scary movie."

"Yea, I guess so." He said

_Sometimes it's the subtle things that terrify us the most._ He thought.

"What was that?" said Jenny innocently.

A bead of sweat traces Ben's forehead as he realized what he did. He quickly recovered.

"Huh? I didn't say anything." This was true, not with his mouth at least.

"Oh, could have sworn I heard something." She said,

A few moments passed before she laid her head on his shoulder yet again. Her hand lightly stroked his arm. Yet another droplet fell from his face. This time, it was an escaped tear.

_I'm sorry._ He though, keeping it to himself this time.

The couple left the movie theatre quite pleased. Jenny had never had a better evening in her life, and she wasn't prepared to let it end so soon.

"Hey, you want to go to the park?" she asked.

"Forgive me for answering a question with a question," retorted Ben "Aren't you supposed to be home by a certain time?"

"Oh, don't be such a stuffy;" she said, tugging on his arm "Live a little. Be a teenager."

He smiled at her well thought out advice, and decided to embrace such an opportunity. Begrudgingly, but he still embraced it.

"Okay." He said.

"Awesome! Just think of it as a… short cut."

She giggled and led him to Tremorton Park. It was a vast, grassy knoll that stretched for a mile or so. Ben remembered such scenery such as this back home. He was young, but he remembered it being beautiful. The brief time he spent with his family, before it all ended…. Before his home was robbed from him.

The two held hands and strolled through the park for the better part of an hour. They didn't say too much, just talked about how beautiful the night was, how the temperature was perfect, and how huge the moon was. After a while they ended up at the end of the park. A series of domestic buildings lay in front of them.

"Through here." Jenny said leading Ben into an alley way, suspicion drew upon Ben's face.

She playfully pulled him close to her and against a wall and pressed him close to her, his heart thudded against her chest. Even as tall as she was, Jenny still needed to look up at Ben. Their eyes met and they held the gaze for a few brief moments before Jenny spoke again.

"Listen," she said "I want to tell you that…. that you're the first guy to ever make me feel this way. I don't quite know how I feel, but I know when I'm around you… you make all the pains I've endured go away."

Ben smiled; he saw the look of longing and romance in her eyes and could no longer fight the primal urges that lay dormant within him. He caressed her leg, lifting it slightly. She moaned a bit as he sucked on her neck, one of the straps to her dress fell off her shoulder and onto her arm. She raised her leg up more as her heat and pressure sensors went into overload, a sensation that can only be described as pleasure. He backed away and looked at her again. Her face was flushed and lustful. The bluish shade that colored her cheeks slowly began to fade as he pursed his lips and moved his head close to hers. She closed her eyes and moved forward slightly, waiting for their lips to meet.

Only centimeters away from her first kiss, the high beams of a vehicle penetrated the dark privacy of the alleyway. The two reeled back and squinted attempting to block the lights that came from the vehicle that now honked at them. A short, white haired woman poked her head out of the grey and blue van.

"XJ-9!" shouted the woman, "Get your posterior in the van, _now_!"

"What the hell mom?" said Jenny.

"NOW!" shouted Nora

Jenny looked over at Ben, her face was extremely disappointed. Ben felt a bit of relief yet, disappointment as well. What was becoming of him? Why was his will so weak for this girl?

"I have to go." She said looking away from him.

"Oh," he said, his discontent obvious, "I guess I'll see you when I see you."

"Yea, see ya." Said Jenny, leaving his grip and dragging her feet to her mother's car

As he watched the beautiful, metallic girl begrudgingly move to the van, he thought long and hard. His instincts that he had suppressed for so long had been brought out by one girl. One very special girl. She wasn't like others. She was… real.

"Jenny!" Shouted Ben running up to her before she opened the van door, "Wait!"

She turned to face him, but before she could register what was happening, he was upon her. His hands wrapped around her face and head and pulled her close to him. His lips met hers in a way that rendered her speechless and motionless. She didn't know how to react, his lips were warm and soft, her feelings were strong. All she could do and wanted to do was close her eyes, wrap her arms around his neck and lift her leg in attempt to kiss him back at his level.

They held each other, their lips locked in an endless romanticism, for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly the horn honked again and Nora began yelling at Jenny through the open window. She pulled away and looked at him, with a great passion she said goodbye, and then hugged him tight despite the shouts of her aggravated mother.

"Goodbye, Jen." Said Ben as he watched the girl, he had just passionately kissed enter the vehicle "See you Monday."

She smiled sadly at him, and her mother scowled at him. The van peeled away from the alley and sped away. Ben watched until the Van was clearly out of site, and then his smile faded into a sorrowful, yet hateful face. His eyes welted up with tears he had been so well controlling up until now. A radio somewhere in the alley played the song he had heard Monday, _Behind Blue Eyes_. It sang:

_No one knows what it's like._

Ben punched the wall and angrily flung his body throughout the hallway, sobbing uncontrollably. The words "I'm sorry" kept running through his head as he realized how terrible a person he had just become.

_To be the bad man._

He made this girl think he loved her, and honestly, he didn't even know how he felt. He only was definite that he was not only a failure to his people, but a deceitful bastard as well.

_To be the sad man._

Ben fell down against the wall, broken. He ran his arms through his greasy, slicked back hair. Tears dropped to the concrete beneath him. _What have I done?_ He thought.

_Behind blue eyes._


	5. Chapter V: BlackWhite

_**Hellow Fanfic fanatics, Nibbles again. I've really gotten on a ball with this series. It's probably going to be one of my first stories finished in record time, which is pretty sad when you think about it. I guess it's just a shame, since this isn't something I can profit monetarily from. But it has proved to be turning out very good and I like the way the chemistry of certain characters is working.**_

_** Any who, this chapter is aimed to be shorter than its predecessors. I have a lot of ground to cover still and we haven't even reached the first climactic arc yet! As always I do not own MLaaTR or Warhammer 40,000, etc, etc. Please R&R!!! I needs to know hows I'm doings XP. (Unproffesionallity!!! [Nor is that a word .]) Enjoy chapter V!**_

There was a tense silence in the van. Jenny sat in the passenger's seat, her arms crossed and angrily gazing out the window. Her mother, Nora Wakemen, was furiously clutching the steering wheel. There was a look of distain on her face; it was slightly justified, but still an overreaction. Without taking her furious eyes off the road, Nora broke the silence first.

"I am very disappointed in you XJ-9," she said, stating the obvious, Jenny rolling her eyes. "You turned off all communication. We've talked about this! You're strictly prohibited to ever separate from the communication line. What if-"

"What if what, mom?" barked Jenny, turning to her mother. "What if earth were attacked? What if I might be needed?"

"XJ-9, save it. It's not about that."

"What if the government suddenly wanted me back for some arbitrary reason? Oh heavens no, that's be _awful_ if I were to lose you an opportunity for more leech money. What if I was, god forbid allowed to have a social life out from under the wing of my mother?"

"Jennifer Wakemen, stop it!" shouted Nora, her choler incredibly high

Jenny's eyes widened. She was stunned it's the first time she'd ever referred to her by that name.

"XJ-…. Jenny," Nora Began. "I was a teenager once. I took risks, I did…things that I'm not so proud of, and that I'm very hurt by, still to this day, and I'm pushing 55."

The small, white haired, woman turned to Jenny. Jenny looked at her, extremely guilty and apologetic.

"I just don't want to see you hurt." Nora turned back to the road, obviously fighting back emotions "I don't want to see something happen to you."

"I…I'm sorry mom. I didn't mean to-"

"Save it." Interjected her mother. "That doesn't make me any less angry at you. You will have your communication devises extracted for the weekend. And-"

"What? But you just said-"

"Ah, Jennifer, let me finish." Her mother said with elegance "I will not need to worry about you because you will be at home all weekend, and grounded until further notice."

"What?" argued Jenny leaning into her mom, immediately thinking of Gerardo "That's unfair! I had plans!"

"Tough," said Nora, coldly "You should have thought of that before you lied to me and stayed out past curfew with a boy I've never even _heard _about. And we haven't even _begun_ to discuss that subject."

Jenny rolled her eyes again. She leaned against the window of the van, mumbling "whatever" under her breath, as her mother ranted on about boys and sex and other things she had no interests in speaking about just right now with her mother. As they finally approached their glass roofed, three story house, Jenny made an observation. Her eyes zoomed in on the door. She gasped lightly.

"Mom, hold on a second." Interrupted Jenny

"Excuse me?" said her mother angrily turning of the car

"I-I think we've been broken into."

"What?" her mother's expression not much different than her own.

Nora reached into the glove department and pulled out a small, stripped hand-pistol loaded it with a clip also in the glove department.

"Always be prepared" she said. "Stay behind me."

Her gaze was met by that of a disapproving Jenny.

"Fine," said her mother, rolling her eyes from behind thick, tinted glasses "You lead"

Jenny stepped out of the vehicle and pulled her jacket off in one smooth motion. Her arm transformed into a tri-probed ray-gun. I small weapon but far from minor, it was one of the few Gerardo did not strip from her once she went under for the body work. As the tall teenager and her short counterpart reached the front step they realized that they have indeed been broken into. The door had been kicked in, even with double bolt locks. The door sat in its closed position, the bolts resting on the splintered wood frame.

Jenny pushed the door open and immediately switched to night vision, her house/observatory now awash with green light, illuminating every once barren corner. Her eyes scanning every corner with appropriate, inhuman accuracy; she found nothing out of place. She switched to heat vision. The walls with thinner insulation turned gossamer. The green house was now blue, with only the occasional deep red foot print. _Someone is still here, _thought Jenny.

Her mother, was once a military operative, a mechanical engineer for the marine corp. Nora used her training for the first time in front of Jenny. For a small, old woman, she seemed to move very swiftly, making signals with her hands every time they turned the corner that even Jenny had to dig deep to remember. It was kind of cool. Even her old age her mother still had the potential bad ass material deep inside.

After sweeping most of the downstairs, they reached the hall that lead to the kitchen. Rays of light blue light reached out into the dark corridor. Jenny turned off her heat vision, only to notice that it was the refrigerator light. Jenny raised an eyebrow in intrigue as she put her back to the wall and crept up to the corner. Her pigtail opened in a cone like shape, a high pitched sonic wave shot out from it and bounced off the back wall and into the kitchen. After a brief moment the wave bounced back. There was an obstruction; the invader was in their kitchen.

Jenny nodded to her mother and she nodded back. The tri-ray on Jenny's arm charged, arcs of lightning jumped in between the synapses of the weapon. Nora simple cocked her pistol and the two girls of separate generations made full swat turns into the kitchen. A man of below average height, still sadly taller than Nora, was standing within their home. His bald head gleamed in the refrigerator light; he wore an all black suit, and a black overcoat. He was eating noodles out of a container that had the words "MOM" written on them in big black letters. His hazel eyes peered over a pair of blue-tinted glasses that sat on the end of his nose.

"Hey," spoke the man in a gruff yet relaxed voice "What's up?"

"Your liquefied remains on my ceiling, that's what's up" Threatened Jenny.

"Really?" he said wiping his salt and pepper goatee "That sounds like a bad idea"

At that moment, Jenny heard the charge of an electric weapon, not unlike her own, from behind her. She turned around to see the sound, she saw a tall man in a white suit and a pair of classic black sunglasses. He was handsome; smooth tanned flesh, with rugged yet refined features. His grin was pure white and extremely huge. Two fangs proximately protrude themselves from the order of his regular smile. One hand rested calmly in his jacket pocket while the other was twisted into a malformed, arcane, black gun and was pointed at her mother. The man grinned devilishly as volts of yellow electricity jumped from the exposed electrodes of his arm.

"Feds." said Dr. Wakemen with a cobra's venom, looking back at the man-thing agent that placed his massive gun on by her head.

"You might want to put your weapon away, Miss." Said the man in white in a southern accent "Unless you want to be scrapping bits of your mother off of the walls of your house."

"Release her!" shouted Jenny, her weapon charging, about to fire on the man in white.

"Jenny," said Nora calmly, dropping her own gun "Do as the man says."

Jenny, still eager to protest, begrudgingly lowers her weapon and then transforms it back into her normal, girlish hand. The man in white still grinned as his weapon arm began to disintegrate. What appeared to be black smoke enveloped the hand until it transformed back into a black humanoid hand, from there it transmuted into human flesh. Jenny watched in amazement at the man-thing's spectacular arm.

"Tasty details, dude." Spoke the man in black as he crossed next to the man in white. "Not that I didn't just eat."

The man in white still grinned and said nothing.

"What the hell do you two want, and why couldn't it have waited until morning?" barked Nora.

"My dearest apologies, Dr. Wakemen, but we don't give a shit about you right now." Said the man in white with his suave southern draw and through his wicked smile "We want to speak with Earth Defense Unit XJ-9, and we don't want anyone else."

Jenny said nothing; she only glared at the two cocky and untouchable government officials that had been sent to probe their home for god knows what.

"And we won't take no for an answer." Said the Man in black.

"Excuse me, where are my manners." Said the man in white, his wording thick of irony. "You can call me Mr. Black, my colleague here, is Mr. White. That's all the information about us you need to know."

"What the hell do you want?" Barked Jenny.

"Oh, feisty." Said the one called Mr. White, grinning sadistically. "Just the way I like 'em"

Jenny cringed at the thought.

"We have been sent by the federal government, to well, spy on you." Said Mr. Black

"You son of a bitch," retorted Jenny "What gives you the right?"

"We're the damn FBI, honey." Said White

"Exactly," spoke Black, attempting to be less perverted than his partner, yet this was not helped do to his constant grin "And we've noticed, in previous months, that you have undergone some, transformations. This is rather obvious by looking at your… body."

Jenny winced at the agents, a confirming hand on her wrist from her mother calming her.

"And we are quite aware that this operation was done, illegally. We want to know who it was that did the procedure."

"It was me," interjected Nora protectively

"As if," laughed White "We've seen the random withdraws in your, government funded, bank account, Ms. Wakemen. Nice try but no cigar."

"Is this what all this is about? A fucking body reconstruction?" Nora looked up with at her daughter with a wry face, a sign of disapproval at her unprovoked language problem.

"Sadly, no." said White

"We have reason to believe that your daughter is interacting with a dangerous alien life form." Finished Black

Jenny felt her body cringe, a sign of worry and guilt. Gerardo does work at an interstellar trader's bar. But would that be reason enough to involve the Government?

"What does that exactly mean?" spoke Nora softly

"We're not quite sure at this moment. But we know that something is here, in Tremorton, and at one point has associated with it. We don't know what it is or what it wants but its here for a very important purpose, whatever that may be." White said his grin fading.

"So what you're saying is there _might_ be a threat you know nothing about." Said Nora with a sarcastic overtone

"Ma'am," said White "Don't get snippy with us."

"Let's put it this way," said Black nicely "We know what we're looking for, and you're not authorized to tell you."

"We'll keep an eye out." Said Nora

"Thank you ma'am," said White putting a black fedora on his bald head "We'll send for someone to fix your door."

The two turned and headed for the front door with no sense of error about them. They felt untouchable, and they knew that they were. Jenny was absolutely filled with raged. She wanted to punch a hole through someone, which she was very capable of doing.

"Do believe any word of what they just said?" asked Jenny through her gritted teeth.

"Not a chance." Answered her mother. "They were looking for something…"

The drones had been digging for days. The tunnels were only getting more winding and labyrinth. Runes etched the ancient walls of the tomb, ones similar to that of the obelisk that marked the entrance. Hundreds of scarabs dug for miles on end, looking for one sacred and most likely heavily guarded artifact. Ancient rooms carved in rock eons ago, each holding grounds for a long decayed species. Miles of black, ashen corridors that have been caved in and shrunken with build-up of calcium and minerals unknown to man, and for that matter, the Cluster.

Cassius paced the corridors, overlooking the endangered species of the cluster drones. He watched them dig for days, blasting contracted corridors and destroying weathered, rock doors. They had gotten nowhere, and he had begun to lose his already short patients.

"Where the hell is it?" shouted Cassius his enraged and accented voice booming throughout the miles of rock carved tunnel. Cassius reached the nearest drone up over his head and ripped it in two, despite its feeble screams and cries of protest.

"We've searched everywhere!" shouted the tarnished machine, firing a laser protruding out of his arm in one of the drones fleeing in terror.

"It has to be here," this time Cassius turned his hand into a saw and sliced through a nearby drone. "All the research. All those documents can't be wrong. My love, Vexus, has never been wrong!"

"I refuse to let her die!" he fired a missile down a hallway toward an un-expecting drone. The drone ducked and the missile shot by hitting a wall a few meters further down the corridor. A massive hole appeared where the wall once was. A mass of Cluster drones moved into view the gaping hole. Cassius watched angrily as the group of scarabs abandoned their duties.

"Back to work you overgrown, pill-bug, bastard children!" shouted Cassius hatefully firing his laser weapon into the rock above him.

Few of the drones listened. This angered Cassius, he stormed over to the group of awestricken drones and as he turned his arms into circular saws. He raised the weapons up, prepared to cleave the minions to pieces, but before he could bellow his eyes caught what was on the other side of the opening. He dropped his arms and instantly forgot his blind rage. The opening leaded to a massive cavern that dropped almost a kilometer down. The cavern was carved in, and completely undamaged like the rest of the tomb. The massive room was lined with hundreds of obelisks across the floor.

Cassius turned on the jets within his feet and flew down to the floor level. The stone errections stood at least a meter above the head of the already tall Cassius. He walked down the rows of pyramid-like stone pillars. After a few moments of amazement, Cassius had finally found his goal. A massive green light shone brightly down to a single black pillar that stood less than a meter tall. He moved toward it, not sure if his eyes had registered exactly what he was seeing correctly.

After a few moments, Cassius had reached the small pedestal. The Nercronian symbol was carved with unnatural accuracy into the face of the pedestal. Atop of the pillar, lay a shining glass sphere. An object so simple, so small and insignificant, it can't be the source of such power. Cassius stood over the sphere his reflection shone in it clearly. At first he hesitated to grab the orb. His mind creating bizarre scenarios that had been inspired by the research and myths, but despite this, he grabbed the orb slowly, his rusting gold hand enveloping the orb. As he held the sphere in his hand visions of intense knowledge filled his brain. It was only for the split second, but he learned so much. His posture corrected and his language rectified. Menial and large, he learned things about the universe he never thought possible.

Cassius shivered at the feeling of such immense power. The feeling of this grand unveiling was borderline orgasmic. He now knew that what he held in his hands was the object that would save his world, his people, and his love. He held in his hand the most dangerous and powerful artifact in the universe. He held the resurrection orb of the Necrons and with it; he would awaken gods, and move mountains.


	6. Chapter VI: Love and War

_**Hellow my fellow Americans, (even though not all of you ARE American o.0) chapter VI of the Clock Struck Midnight is here :D. This chapter really only acts as a filler for the upcoming chapters, which will kick the pace into a high gear. This one has a little less pacing but it still holds crucial details just like the other chapters before it and after it.**_

_**So hope you enjoy chapter VI, as always, R&R, Intense gore and violence, language, sexual themes. In addition; I do not own MLaaTR or WH40k.**_

About a week had passed since that grand night of Jennifer Wakemen's first kiss. The couple had taken to each other quite well. The two had decided to go steady, no more horsing around like elementary school children. As Jenny's first boyfriend, she had really gotten quite the catch. He was everything she'd ask for. They were similar enough to like each other's interests, but differed enough that they didn't get bored with one another. What tops it all is that they were a cute couple composed of two extremely attractive people. Everyone smiled to see the two together. But the only one who wasn't was Brad.

After a week of dating, he could not find out what it was about the guy, but he knew that something was wrong with Ben. But what? He was practically perfect, but Brad isn't the jealous type. At least he didn't think he was. After all Jenny had been through, he couldn't see why he had such a hard time being happy for them. This mix of confusion and dislike fueled into anger, and this could lead to rage, something that Brad has never felt toward another person since the play ground bullies when he was four.

The five friends, Brad, Jenny, Sheldon, Tuck, and the new addition, Ben had met at their location of choice that they normally hang out at. Jenny had finally been taken off restriction and was planning on using her time with her boyfriend wisely. Her mother still didn't trust her, however, she trusted Ben after she met him. That was as insulting as it was confusing. But she didn't mind, she had all the time in the world to spend with Ben, and she wasn't going to screw up again and lose it.

The five people sat in a booth, just bull-shitting, genuinely enjoying themselves, except Brad obviously. Brad was incapable of doing that right now, and he was normally the center of the group's hilarity. But Ben was holding his own, very charismatic and bold. Ever feature on his face was so perfect that it made Brad want to beat them out of perfection with his bare hands. He just sat their arms folded and grimacing, as his other friends sat and joked and laughed. He snarled involuntarily every time Jenny fed something to Ben or they kissed innocently. It was harmless, and anyone else he wouldn't have minded. But,_ this_ guy, he hated him, with fiery passion. He wanted to rip that hat off his head and asphyxiate him with it, then stab him to death with those stupid glasses he never takes off.

_Jesus Christ_, thought Brad _what the hell is wrong with me? _

__After a short while the T.V. in the restaurant had its programming interrupted by a breaking news cast. Any other time Jenny would have ignored it, but this one caught her eye. The T.V. anchorwoman spoke with that same, careless monotone that made every single news cast sound epic. The only word that caught the attention of the robot girl was the location: Seattle. Jenny turned in her seat and watched the report, eventually the rest of the group listened in. Over the noise of music and talking they heard very little:

_Police raid… Seattle slum...9 killed 2 dozen injured… escaped FBI most wanted… illegal bionic enhancements… high alert… all residential areas… male, Irish decent… _

"Dear god," Muttered Jenny under her breath, after a long pause: "Guys, I need to go home."

"What? Over a little newscast?" asked Sheldon "The_ metropolitan_ area is about 100 miles from here. Is _that _what you're worried about?"

"Yes… no… I mean… it's just robot business okay?" Stammered Jenny, standing up and grabbing her purse

"Do you want me to walk you home, baby?" said Ben standing up

"No, no," Said Jenny distracted "But thank you for the offer."

Jenny said good bye and kissed Ben. Sheldon averted his eyes out of respect and caught the gaze of Brad, whom behind his thick black sunglasses was scowling at the happy couple. Tuck broke the awkwardly long kiss.

"Ew you guys. Get a room!"

"Sorry, Tuck." Laughed Jenny. "See you guys later."

The group waved off Jenny, once again, except Brad.

"Hey, I'm gonna head out too," said Ben placing his and Jenny's portion of the bill on the table, and headed for the washrooms to ritualistically regurgitate his small amount of food. "I'm going to go wash up, see ya guys tomorrow."

Brad followed Ben with his eyes, behind the protection of his sunglasses; another snarl broke out on his face.

"Okay," said Sheldon once Ben was out of earshot "What crawled up your ass?"

"What?" said Brad playing stupid

"You kept looking at Ben and Jenny with murderous intent." He said concerned "What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with you?" barked Brad "Don't you still have the hots for Jen?"

"Yes," said Sheldon "But I also know that when you love something let it go. Jenny is really happy with Ben and you should respect that."

"Of all people I thought, you'd be on my side." Brad stood up and gestured to Tuck "Come on, Runt, we're out of here."

Tuck followed Sheldon and mouthed "sorry" to Sheldon. The 3ft tall kid followed his older brother as he stormed out. As Brad exited he bumped shoulders with a shorter gentleman. He was dressed as if he just came from a Vampire the Masquerade meeting. The guy was bald, had a goatee, and was wearing extremely creepy clothing. He wore a black fedora, had a pair of thin blue specs on the end of his nose, he wore a black trench coat over his black suit and white tie.

The man was far out of place in this teenaged based setting. He went up to the owner behind the bar-counter, and leaned in-between two teenagers who looked at him rudely. Sheldon could not hear what he was saying, but the moment he pulled his wallet out, the old man's face went pallid, and he pointed him in the direction of the washrooms. The man in black tipped his hat, and entered the restrooms. Sheldon, desperate to be the kind of super-spy that would attract girls, specifically Jenny, he moved up to the door and heard the terrors from the other side.

The Cluster Dreadnaught exited out of warp travel finally. They crew gracious to be heading back to the dead, ashen landscape they know and love. Cluster Prime; huge chunks had been blasted out of the artificial world by the human navy. The ground war was just as devastating. The blinded and easily fooled citizens, happy with their socialist-like ideals had been blown away by the human marines within minutes, scores of innocent robots were slaughter by the minute. And they called the Cluster Savage.

And that was just the ground troops, the desolation brought by Earth Defense Unit XJ-9 had been a crippling blow to the cluster. Their strongest machines were felled in minutes and their legions of drones and foot soldiers had been massacred in seconds. Her close combat weapons cleaving through dozens with ease, her long ranged weapons would decimate entire companies.

It was a brutal end to a war not nearly as vicious. Sixteen days of naval battles. Fleets of human ships cleaved through the unaware Cluster Armada. Sixty-two days of ground fighting. The civilians extinguished, armies reduced to the man. And worst of all, three days of the firestorms. Massive warheads tearing craters the size of cities into the metal world, one warhead of which, ruined the Imperial Palace, and took the life of Queen Vexus.

After her death the survivors had lost their synapse to the hive mind, and began to lose tactical thought, they were soon destroyed in attempts to form pocket resistances against the humans. Those who did not attack blindly fled the world with the last member of the council of eight, Cassius. Now, Cassius had the ability to rectify all of this devastation, and he and his queen shall rage violent and bloody war on the humans until the flesh wearers were extinct and Earth will become Cluster Omega; the planet's neighboring worlds will become massive military bases and colonies, attracting renegade machines like moths to flame.

When the Cluster Empire has reached its full potential, they shall crusade against other flesh wearing races, annexing them as slaves and soldiers if they surrender, and jovially annihilating them if they resist. The knowledge that Cassius held in his arms, wrapped in a heavy cloth, could map out the galaxy. Pinpointing every weakness and flaw of each and every race, even their own. They could make themselves unstoppable and it will all soon be possible.

The ant-like ship touched down onto the dead world, its six hydraulic limbs stabilizing it on the uneven landscape. Cities of gruesome iron had been made molten and are now massive mountains that look as if they were painted like buildings in mockery of the once great Cluster race. Before them, the biggest defilement was made visible. An icon of their faith and government was now a pile of rubble and a series of disconnected walls.

"The Imperial Palace," breathed Cassius, his accent still southern but somehow more scholarly "The core reactor to the planet lay beneath the chamber of the Council of Eight. It is there that we will revive our too long dead legacy."

Cassius and his retinue of humanoid Locust Warriors walked up the distorted palace steps. Every step closer the ball of cloth in his hand began to glow brighter. Cassius chuckled as small jolts of green electricity tingled his fingers; the power of the item was so immense and arcane that it sensed death, so that it may have the chance to revive the fallen.

The group had reached the door to the Council chambers. Cassius pushed the massive steel doors open. The room had been desecrated; rubble and fallen guard littered the room. The six dead councilmen sad, slumped and destroyed in their chairs of office, one of which was the hated rival of Cassius; Smytus. If he had the opportunity to revive all but one, he'd be the one left out. He was a pompous, arrogant, and selfish bastard. He did not deserve the right hand seat to the beautiful seductress that sit silent on her throne.

Tears would have been flowing from Cassius's eyes if he had tear ducts. He looked at his beautiful queen and bowed, his silent warrior guards did the same. Cassius thought for a moment about how exactly he was going to do this. A thought, an amazing thought accrued to him; he didn't need to think about it. He gleefully unwrapped the ball and placed the glass orb swiftly to his forehead.

After a scream of pain caused by the rush of knowledge, he pulled the orb back and laughed manically. He raised the orb high above his head and bellowed words of a dead language:

"Maschile von la C'tan sich erheben avverbio und sostantivo!"

Cassius slammed the orb into the floor. Massive, glowing cracks formed around the orb as it went half way into the steel. Electricity and unnatural energies flowed in volts into the core reactor. The world glowed bright green from all of its faults and crevices as it began to spread life across the dead world. Dead robots arose from a once permanent slumber to see their world magically pull itself together. The craters closed, the crumpled building rectified, armies awoken and pieced themselves back together. All of the machines gained a sense of invulnerability as arcane magic filled their bodies. Cassius watched as the council of eight awoke from a rotted slumber and found their forms suddenly brand new. And most amazing of these events, he saw his beloved queen move and sit straight up. Her eyes glowed with the energy of a thousand souls. And in her amazing voice she looked at her savior, and spoke his name.

And the clock struck midnight.

Jenny landed outside of her home. Everything seemed peaceful as Tremorton always did in any non-invasion scenario. She walked through her front door, the door knob had been fixed by the government funded locksmith, and it was pretty top dollar.

"Mom!" shouted Jenny "I'm home."

No response. She pushed on the door, and walked on assuming the force would shut it, but she did not hear it slam. She turned around, and it was open slightly. Jenny dismissed it as the differences in pressure and closed it.

She walked upstairs assuming her mother was at her work bench by the telescope. When Jenny finished climbing the spiral stair case, she saw that she was right. Her mother was welding something at her work bench, completely unprotected. She even had her raincoat off. But that was her mother. A risk taker, even if it's as simple as that.

Jenny walked up to her mother, a look of curiosity on her face.

"So," said Jenny "Why did you need me here? Was it that important that you needed to leave me a silent message directly into my brain?"

"Well," said her mother not looking up from her work "It wasn't you I needed exactly, merely your presence."

"Huh?" said Jenny reeling back.

"You bitch!" shouted an Irish voice as if on cue.

Jenny lurched back as her motion detection sensors went haywire. A massive mechanical arm lurched downward from the telescope, smashing that part of the bench in two. A red robe then draped over the hunched figure. Before either Jenny or the red robed figure could retaliate, Nora, with no surprise on her face, took the welding tool to the left eye of the figure. He screamed in agony as his half metal face was burnt to near destruction. He dropped to the floor in pain, rolling around clutching his face with his four-fingered, mechanical arm.

"Planting a tracking device on your clients in case of such a scenario as this? Such a predictable, elementary tactic, Gerardo," Said Wakemen, with a tone of confidence in her voice as she turned off the welder "Even for you."

Gerardo looked up at her viscously, but could only bring himself to his knees due to the immense agony. Jenny said nothing, instead just standing with her jaw dropped, amazed at her mother's swift and tactical skills.

"I can see you're still a shriveled, cult-obsessed, bottom-feeding, worm." Said Wakemen valiantly

"Well, Nora," said Gerardo taking his hand away from his destroyed tri-focal "I can see you're still a bitch."

With great anger, she whipped him over the back of the head with the metal welding torch. He grabbed his head and yelped.

"Did I say bitch? I meant butch." Spoke the rouge Irishman with brazen bravery.

Wakemen drove her brown leather boot into his stomach, robbing the murderous surgeon's lungs of air. He stopped talking, and rolled over, coughing and gasping for breath through his skeletal face.

"Wait," interjected Jenny "How… do you know each other?"

"We both went to Oxford," said the Doctor, digging her heel into Gerardo's throat "Remember how I said there were things I wasn't so proud of?"

Jenny nodded.

"Dating this tosser was one of them." Finished Nora

Jenny gagged a bit, but it was enough to be obvious.

"Oh please," said Wakemen, looking disappointedly at her daughter, "He had his original parts back then. It was when he started preaching 'Machine God' bullocks and chopped off his arm that I dumped him."

"Oh…" said Jenny, still a little sickened "Even still."

"Will you help me prepare the guest bedroom, Jenny?" Said the small woman.

"What? He tried to kill me!" shouted Jenny.

"Only because you narced on me, you backstabbing, shiner, whor-" choked Gerardo before more pressure was laid down on his wind pipe.

"I did no such thing!" said Jenny before the thought of the FBI agents clicked in her head.

"Jennifer, I'm not going to ask you again." Said her mother calmly, and taking her foot off of the suffocating Gerardo.

"Yes, mother." Said Jenny begrudgingly

"Oi, I don't need your charity woman" said Gerardo standing up and dusting off his robes.

"Not from where I'm standing." Said Wakemen "As I see it, the moment you step out that door the federal government is going to be all over you. So you either stay here, or get abducted."

"Aye," agreed Gerardo "And what's to stop me from killing you in your sleep?"

"I thought of that." Dr. Wakemen pulled out a small remote and pushed one of the buttons on it.

With the hum of engines a massive thud crashed behind Gerardo concealing him in its shadow, his eye widened at the improbable horror that now stood behind him. He looked at the smug faces of Nora and Jenny Wakemen, and gulped. He turned to see the monstrosity and saw that it was a large humanoid robot, not unlike Jenny in design, but much larger and bulkier. It gazed down at him with a massive frown upon its face and blank white eyes.

"XJ-8, if this man tries to leave his quarters without my consent, assures he is placed back in the room one limb at a time."

"Yes, mother." Spoke the automaton emotionlessly.

Gerardo felt his heart drop, and simply agreed to follow the instructions given to him. Nora headed down the spiral staircase and toward the guest room. Jenny looked at her sister and smiled.

"How are you doing, sis?" said Jenny

"Well." Spoke XJ-8

Jenny's smile faded when she met eye contact with Gerardo, the man who seconds ago was trying to kill her and now is staying in her house. The second thought that grazed her mind was the fact that he and her mom was a couple at one point. In college! _That means they were over 18 _She thought _And that means they… _

"Oh god," said Jenny, reflexively bending over, feeling her non-existent stomach churn.

"What? Can't stand the thought of me and you're mother getting it on?" laughed Gerardo "Just to let you know, it was _great_!"

"Oh god…" said Jenny feeling herself reeling in a nausea that can never relieve itself

"Oh, please don't flatter yourself." Overheard Nora "You were terrible in the sack."

"Don't deny it. You know you loved all of that kinky shit we did,"

"Oh god!" shouted Jenny, her cries of pain ignored,

Nora simply glared at Gerardo and showed him her middle finger.

"Any time, baby." He said pelvic thrusting the air.

"OH GOD! PLEASE STOP!" shouted Jenny clutching her belly.

"Come on Jennifer." Said her mother, whom had turned and was storming out of the area

Jenny flew across the room, quickly catching up to her mother in the hallway. Her mother saw a look of disdain on her face.

"Sorry you had to hear that." Said Nora blushing slightly and avoiding eye contact

"Well that was pretty bad," said Jenny not looking up from the floor, to avoid awkward eye contact as well "But why are you harboring him? You hated the fact that I got the body work done. Why would you let the man, a fugitive none the less, stay in our home?"

"For one, I didn't hate that you got it done," said Nora, shocking Jenny "I hated the way you went about it; constantly going out behind my back to do something illegal with government money. And what really got to me is that you didn't trust me enough to ask _me_ to do the body reconstruction. And for as to why I'm harboring a criminal; the government doesn't want to arrest him, they want him for something. That's why they came here that one night; they found payment documents so that they could trace the location."

"Wanted him? For what?" questioned Jenny, facing her mother

"I don't know. That's the scary part." Said Nora, finally looking at Jenny "And you know me; when I don't understand something, I take it apart until I do."

Ben finally pulled his head from the toilet, cursing the chefs of this vile, greasy, heart-stopping food. His eyes were blood shot and his throat was raw again. He cursed some more, this time cursing his sensitive pallet. He rose from the toilet and exited the stall.

He had heard someone enter the bathrooms, but thought nothing of it. He moved to the sink to rinse his mouth and wash his sweaty face. He took his hat and glasses off, setting them on the edge of the sink and plunged his hands into the water. After washing his face off, he noticed a presence behind him. Assuming the presence was familiar, her spoke and turned;

"Listen Fortunatus, I need more ti-" Ben had seen the figure behind him and his words were replaced with curses "Son of a bi-"

These words too were cut short as a hard jab to his stomach sent the wind shooting from his lungs. The next blow was to his temple, spinning him 180. He stopped and held onto the sink, and kicked out, hitting his attacker in the chest, but not hard enough to keep him at bay. Ben swung his arm around with inhuman speed, his target ducked, grabbing his arm and sent a blow to his chest.

Ben hunched over, and was kneed in the face, sending him flying back in-between two sinks. Blood gushed from his nose and split lip as he tried to gain balance. The attacker grabbed him by the collar and then placed his second hand on the back of his head. The attacker smashed Ben's face into the sink, shattering it spilling water and shards of ceramic across the floor and all over Ben.

The broken and defeated Ben attempted to stand up, but only got as far as being on his hands and knees before a black boot smashed into his ribs, putting him out of commission. Ben lay in the running water, fading in and out of consciousness. The attacker picked him up by his collar with ease. He could only see a blur of the world around him, his attacker was a white human male, and he wore black. That's all he could see.

"Listen you alien shit." barked the attacker, his voice was monotone but very dangerous, and extremely serious "We know what you're here for, and you can't have it."

"Y-you," Ben tried to speak "M-missed my itch sp-pot."

The attacker punched him in the face knocking him free of his grip and toppling him onto shards of sharp porcelain, sending them stabbing into his back. Ben screamed and attempted to roll over, but the attacker hat placed his boot on his chest and applied increasing pressure, sending the shards deeper into his back.

"Better?" sarcastically spoke the attacker "We know your after the specimen, why else would your kind wish to fiddle with humans?"

"I don't know what the fuck… you're talking… about…" wheezed Ben

"I think that's a lie," Putting more weight onto his foot "I think you are trying to gain access to the federal government's research through Earth Defense Unit XJ-9."

"You… You have no idea… what our…ag-genda is, m-Mon'kei!" retaliated Ben

"Consider this your warning shot," said the attacker taking his boot off of Ben's chest "Because the next time we see you with XJ-9, you won't even feel the shot."

The stranger left without a trace, and Ben attempted to crawl away before the world around him faded into darkness.

The strange man walked out of the restroom, swinging the restroom door open and brushing shoulders with Sheldon. Their eyes only met briefly. The hazel crescent above the rim of his blue specs was a terrifying "You saw nothing" look. The man walked out of the hangout with haste, as if he didn't want to be seen any longer than need be.

Despite the non-verbal warning, Sheldon opened the door to see if what he heard matched what he was about to see. His eyes widened as he saw the crumpled form of Ben lying face first in a pool of watery blood. Instead of calling for help, Sheldon walked in, and knelt down next to the unconscious, but thankfully still alive, Ben.

He checked his pulse to be sure and rocked him to wake him up. Ben didn't budge. Sheldon stood up and pulled out his cell phone. He quick hit a few arrows until he reached the name he needed to speak to. He hit send; it just rang, and rang, and rang, until finally he heard a voice.

"Hey this is the Bradster. You know what to do."

A high pitched beep sounded on the other end.

"Hey, Brad. This is Sheldon." He said looking down at the unconscious, well dressed body "I think you were right about Ben…"


	7. Chapter VII: Fear the Shadows

_**Good morrow my good people, Mister Nibbles has erected yet another chapter of the TCSMN series. (Aside: Yippy! Acronyms ^-^) so this chapter was delayed by school work and other personal things, but I assure you, the wait will be well worth it. In fact, this so far is the longest chapter yet weighing it at 4,941 words!**_

_**This chapter is the last of a series of surprisingly long filler chapters that litter the beginning of the story. It is merely setting the stage for the arc(s) that will leave the reader gasping for breath due to the intolerable speed and intensity. This chapter is also a more edgy one, involving some intimate sequences and I believe it works **____** so, kick back, relax, and enjoy the smooth ride while it's here ;). **_

_**As always: Sexual themes, language & violence. No I don't own MLaaTR or WH40k.**_

*****

"Oh. My. God!" said Jenny after seeing her boyfriend's bruised and cut face for the first time. "What happened to you?"

Jenny, overreacting, clutched his face and held him close and then sat down at the stone table in the school courtyard. Ben smiled at the caring nature of his robotic girlfriend.

"Its fine, love, it isn't even _that _bad." Said Ben, pushing Jenny away to make eye contact with her from behind his small, purple sunglasses

_It was a lot worse this weekend_ thought Sheldon, joining Brad in his scowling.

"What happened though? Who did this to you?" stressed Jenny.

"I don't know," Lied Ben "It was dark and he was quick. It was just a mugging."

"Poor baby." Said Jenny, holding close to him again, making him half smile again, despite the looks of displeasure from her friends

"It's fine; it's hardly even a few scratches." He said calmly and gently "Don't stress, my love."

"Oh, well okay then." She said forcing a smile "But the moment you remember this bastard, you tell me. I'll snap him like a twig!"

"Jenny!"Ben interjected firmly, but still assuring "It's fine, don't worry"

"Yea, Jen," added Brad, his voice thick with sarcastic venom "The man says it's okay."

"Exactly. Just fine." Smiled Sheldon with equal hatred

"I-I guess you're all right." Jenny agreed

A girl from a few tables over shouted Jenny's name and waved. Jenny smiled and waved back.

"Is it cool if I go say hi to Karen?" asked Jenny, still concerned

"Yes." Laughed Ben "I have no control of what you do."

Jenny kissed him and walked away to talked to the friend of hers. Ben turned back to see the gaze of two very angry men meeting his own.

"What?" Ben asked stupidly

"What do you mean 'what'?" snarled Sheldon, Ben's pale complection becoming clammy.

"You know damn well you weren't mugged on Friday." Added Brad

"Who are you?" Finished Sheldon "And what do you want with Jenny?"

Ben snickered under his breath.

"Are you two serious?" he asked "I'm just her boyfriend. I don't want anything more with her than any other guy would, if you catch my drift."

Ben winked. Brad shot up and charged at Ben, seconds close from beating his face in.

"You sick, little, punk-ass, lying, son of a bi-" barked Brad, building in ferocity

Sheldon stood up and put a reassuring hand on Brad's chest.

"Listen," said Sheldon, more calmly then Brad but still obviously angry. "I don't know _exactly _what I heard that day, but I know for a _fact_ you are not who you say you are."

"And if you so much as scratch paint on Jenny…" boiled Brad.

"You'll what, Bradley?" spoke Ben, losing his patients "You'll attack me? Attempt to do physical harm of any kind to the likes of me? Doubted."

Brad merely snarled, lacking a response. Luckily Sheldon spoke for him:

"Come on Brad, we don't need this bullshit."

The two turned around and walked from the luncheon area. As the two protective friends exited, Brad mouthed the words "I'm watching you" to Ben. Seeing Jenny approach, Ben only gave an innocent smile and a wave in reply.

"Where are they going?" asked Jenny

"I don't know." Lied Ben again "I think to the library."

Jenny raised one eyebrow and sat down.

"_Brad_ going to the _library…_with _Sheldon_?"

"I did say I didn't know." Said Ben with jest, he then scooted next to his beautiful girlfriend and wrapped his arm around her. "Besides, now it's just you and me"

Jenny blushed and giggled, looking down to hide her blushing. Ben's eyes darted around the courtyard, scanning the shadows for any sign of the many people who were now hunting him. _For now,_ he thought.

*****

Cassius stood in the newly rebuilt quarters of his Queen, alongside his nemesis. Vexus stood behind silk changing curtains. The silhouettes of her servant droids taking off pieces of the armored plating and replacing them with more regal and vibrant colors was shown in extreme detail. Smytus said nothing, standing resolute and professional as his seductive Queen did the robot equivalent of undressing. Cassius was less of such. His constant movement and jittery mannerisms made it quite obvious that the faceless machine was quite aroused.

Smytus only grinned at the pathetic soldier, that he thinks he might have a chance with the queen of the Cluster. The two turned to see their queen have an imperial robe attached under her armor, making it appear as if it were a tunic or a tabard.

"It feels great." Said the feminine silhouette "To be alive, to be out of the everlasting ether."

"Aye, m'lady" Boomed Smytus.

The silhouette was handed her scepter that ends in a union of two scorpions by a multi armed, centipede-like machine. The female walked out from behind the curtains, her armor now completely red, a long violet cloth protruded from hip section and draped in between her long a sensuous legs. She walked on what appeared to be built-in high heels, something that made her faux-corset midsection sway seductively.

"Cassius," said the machine goddess, her pale face, which contrasted the deep red of her body, lips and eyes, looked at him with great respect "I cannot thank you enough for this chance of rebirth."

"There is no need to thank me, ma'am" said the southern accented robot, with a crackle of embarrassment in his voice.

"Yes there is," she said moving close to him and placing a hand on the tall robot's chest.

Smytus looked at his queen from the corner of his eyes, unsure as to what exactly she was doing. She had always hated Cassius, now she is looking at him with passion. He knew his queen far better than this, she was up to something.

"Oh lord, ma'am. I was only doing what I saw right. For the sake of our people." Said Cassius attempting and failing to be smooth with his words.

"Indeed you did." Said the queen rubbing her hand up and down the false muscles of Cassius's golden shell "For your duties to the Cluster, you are going to be assigned a very important mission to the resurrection of the Cluster initiative."

"And what would that be ma'am?" asked Cassius dumbfounded

"Earth must know that the phoenix has risen from the ash anew." Vexus turned around and moved to a window in her quarters. She looked gleefully at the millions of machines of the Cluster working in communistic union. "You must travel there and fire a warning. Show them that we are coming, we are vengeful and we shall not falter again."

Smytus's jaw slacked in awe. She just gave the dumbest machine on the Council of Eight a of mission of honor and righteousness. How could she do this? Smytus was her right hand general. He was always to spearhead the invasion of Cluster Initiative. She could not have changed her favor, could she?

"Y-yes ma'am." Said Cassius stepping forward, half gleefully, half in shock. "But how might I go about doing such a thing?"

Vexus looked at her scepter, playing with the scorpion idol atop it.

"I wish to have a new staff. I wish for the top to be decorated with the skull of an old friend." Vexus turned to face Cassius, the dead sun that Cluster Prime orbits struck Vexus with near-perfect light. The shadows grasped her face as she spoke with an anger that had festered for what felt like millennia "Go to Earth and pull the head from the fallen corpse of XJ-9."

*****

The massive form of XJ-8 stood, hunched outside the door of Gerardo's room. The feeble and irritable Irishman within it paced in boredom and frustration, his temper rising with every lap. His machine parts clunked as he paced, awaiting for his ex-girlfriend from decades past to say he was safe to leave.

That same woman from decades past, Nora Wakemen, was routinely working at her work bench when her youngest "daughter" approached her. Three other's of Wakemen's collection of self-made machinery accompanied Jennifer as a retinue of estrogenic robots. Gerardo was unlucky enough to hear it all.

"Hey mom," said Jenny, cutely sitting on her desk and making a "puppy dog face" "Remember how I told you about prom coming up, right?"

"Yes," she said without looking up from her project

"Well…" said Jenny "It's this Saturday and I don't have a dress."

"It would have been nice have you given me at least two weeks' notice before you begged for large amounts of money." Replied her mother.

"Well Ben didn't ask me until today at lunch." Said Jenny, protectively

"If he didn't ask his own girlfriend I'd probably have to say he was a bad boyfriend." Said Nora finally looking at Jenny and seeing the other machines behind her "And why did you activate XJ's 4, 5, and 6?"

"Well I need someone to give me an opinion on my dress that isn't a male. And I figured who's better to help a robot girl find a dress than her robot sisters, right? The idea just kinda-"

"Fine! I'll give you money" interrupted Nora "I don't need an over elongated explanation for everything Jennifer."

"But you said if you don't understand something-" Jenny questioned

"Here," Nora stood up, grabbed her wallet sitting right next to her, pulled a small plastic card from her pocket and handed it to Jenny "Have fun. Take your time. Go get a good looking dress, something you're proud to wear. Also something not as revealing as those awful ripped jeans you're wearing, preferably. And please, don't bankrupt me."

"Thanks mom," she said hugging her, and ignoring her mother's comment about her favorite pair of pants.

After a few moments the group of robots had left the household and left Gerardo in silence finally. If he were to be locked in a prison, he wished he could at least get some peace and quiet. He hated high school bullshit. It seemed pointless to him. It even angered him to hear a group of teens squabble and squawk over pure fictional problems. The mere thought of teenage angst made him fill with rage.

At this point, Gerardo realized his heart was pounding and that he was boiling his oils. He needed to calm his machine spirit. He moved over to his bed and pulled two objects out of his robes; a small vial of clear liquid and a medallion necklace that resembled a cog. Gerardo poured a few drops on his machine parts and sat in the center of the room, cross legged. The massive automaton noticed the activity and barked at the hybrid man.

"What are you doing?" it asked, transforming its arm into an impressive weapon. "Is that a weapon?"

"No, it is a medallion" spoke the now calmed Gerardo with his human eye still closed "A symbol of my faith."

"Faith?" responded the machine.

"Hmm, I forget your creator is a scientist, and completely atheist." Smiled Gerardo opening his eyes "Faith is when one being believes in something, something so strong they worship it. Whether it is to gain power or guidance, a way to get in touch with the other side, or sometimes just a way to feel like they have purpose."

"Worship. As in a deity?" boomed XJ-8

"Aye. Some people believe in God, some in Buddha, I believe in something a little more substantial."

"And that is?" a slight emotional curiosity present when XJ-8 spoke

"The Omnissiah. He is the father of technology. He fills machines with bits of his spirit."

"A spirit is insubstantial by definition too, is it not?"

"Not quite, lass… thing…" Gerardo continued "It's what keeps you moving. Keeps you here, bound to this world. When you die, your spirit carries on to be with him, and on to another purpose."

The massive machine asked questions similar to these for about an hour. At one point, Gerardo mentioned his meditations. XJ-8 was curious to find out if there was really something other than gears and plasmas inside of her, keeping her here.

"I would like to join you in your prayers, if that is acceptable." Said the gigantic girl

"Absolutely," said Gerardo, gesturing for the XJ-8 to sit with him "The Omnissiah shows no prejudices."

After some struggle the titanic machine-girl had made her way through the small door way and into the cozy room. She sat cross legged and opposite from Gerardo. He held his hands out and palms up with the medallion chain wrapped around both. XJ-8 held his hands and Gerardo began to speak an ancient, long dead tongue. XJ-8 raised an eyebrow at first, but soon closed her eyes, and joined him in silently praying to the Machine God.

*****

Another disliked dress was draped over the tendril arms of XJ-4 with only a resounding "oh dear" as a response. For about three hours Jenny had gone from store to store in the Tremorton Mall looking for just the right one, no such luck. Her sisters had begun to grow impatient with their younger sibling.

Everything was making her "look fat" or made her "look to thin" or was "to revealing" or "not flashy enough." Every time she'd enter the stall, they'd hold their non-existent breaths only to have it wasted. After a while XJ-6 finally spoke out.

"Okay, here's a plan: Let's call it a day and comeback tomorrow."

"NO!" responded Jenny as she put on yet another dress from within the stall "What if it's not here tomorrow?"

"What's 'it'?" asked XJ-4

"It." Responded Jenny coldly to her naive sister

"The prefect dress she means," said XJ-5

"Christ, even I knew that," rudely stated 6

"Okay," Jenny said coming out of the stall in a lavish black dress. "What do you think?"

Their eyes widened at its beauty on her. They thought as if it was made for her.

"It looks great." Said 5

"Gorgeous." Said 4

"Smokin'" said 6

"Are you sure you're not just saying that?" asked Jenny turning to see herself in the stall's mirror.

A collective "ugh" sounded from the three robots.

"Yes!" shouted 6

"It looks really good! Please pick it. It is genuinely good for you." Expanded 5

"Its very form fitting," added 4, with a gesture "It makes you look, curvy."

"Curvy? Oh my god, I look fat don't I? I knew something was wrong with this one!" cried the hypercritical Jenny, darting back into the stall and ripping off the dress.

"Curvy?" whispered 6, slapping 4 on the back of the head

"Sorry, I thought it was a compliment." Said 4 as the incredible black dress landed in her arms.

"NEXT ONE!" shouted Jenny, and 4 handed a pink one to her this time

"It is, 4." Spoke 5 with an unusual damper in her voice.

"Then why did she react so negatively?" asked the naïve XJ-4

"Who the hell knows?" asked 6 rhetorically. She soon after pulled a chair over and sat backwards.

"I think I do." Answered 5

"Oh what a surprise! You know everything, 5." Said 6

"No, no, no, no, no! Pink is not my color." The pink dress flew out of the stall and into the tentacles of XJ-4 "Next!"

"You know, sometimes I do know a little more than you, 6. And this isn't about you, it's about Jenny." Spoke the floating voice box, her voice rising in volume and anger

"Guys, please, try to be nice." XJ-4 said handing Jenny a jade, strapless dress.

"It's always about Jenny!" angrily whispered XJ-6, completely ignoring 4 by turning in her chair, her spider-like limbs having some difficulty maneuvering "Maybe, some other girls would like the spot light. Maybe sometimes we don't just want to be extras in the movie and we and we want to be main character. When do we get our big break 5? When?"

"You are such a drama queen!" 5 barked, zooming into 6's face "Everything the end of the world to you. That's why mom didn't pick you to be the top model. Because you have no selfless cog in your body."

"Too much chest, not enough bottom." Said Jenny oblivious to the conflict and throwing the dress at the very worried XJ-4. "Next."

"Guys, come on." Said XJ-4, her voice cracking as if she were about to cry, but still handed Jenny a bluish-white dress despite the circumstances "I hate when you do this. We were supposed to have fun today."

"Shut it you OCD octopus," Barked XJ-6 hatefully "You think I'm selfish, you radio with turrets. Then why did miss "top model" get to spend all the government money on a fucking boob job? Huh? Does that sound selfless to you? Does that sound like a super hero to you?"

The voice box trembled as she, for the first time, had nothing to say. So she spat gossip:

"Jenny loves Brad."

Silence hung over the group like a rain cloud at a picnic. Thankfully, Jenny was too busy in the stall changing to pay any attention to her sisters throwing bile at one another, about one another. "5," XJ-4's voice crackled as if she had been stabbed in the spine "How could you? Jenny told us that in secret in confidence. She trusted us."

"I-I, it just." Shuddered XJ-5 "It just came out."

"She loves, Brad?" whispered 6 "Like the one that lives down the street?"

"Yes" answered 4

"Like, the one that Jenny has been friends with since we moved here?"

"Yes," answered 5

"Like the one 8 said she wanted to bang?"

"YES!" answered both 5 and 4, irritated.

"Well then…" paused 6 "I'm going to completely ignore the fact that she didn't tell _me_, because… _BRAD_? Are you sure? It just. I don't know, it…"

"Feels one sided?" finished 4

"Yea." Agreed 6, "He's all over other girls but he's never shown a speck of interest in Jenny, not as far as I'm concerned."

"No, he hasn't." answered 5

"Is that why she got the body work done, to impress _him_?"

"Yea. A real waste if you ask me." Said 4

"A simple reconstruction was not all she was planning on getting done…" said 5 letting yet another cat out of the bag.

"What do you mean?" asked 6

"Gerardo was going to-"

"Well, it's a bit difficult to get into," interrupted the oblivious Jenny as she exited the stall "But so far I like it."

They were speechless. She looked gorgeous. Every part of her body was perfectly extenuated. Its light blue went perfect with her body color. The slit on the right, bottom side went up to the half way point of her thigh, showing her leg off just enough to be hot and good looking and not trashy. The top was only one strap on her left side, revealing her smooth chest in perfect quantity. She was outstanding. Bar-none. XJ-4 dropped all of the dresses she had been holding and wrapped all six arms around Jenny, the sound of sobbing coming out of the robot.

"You. Look. So. Beautiful!" Sobbed the timid robot girl.

Jenny felt her throat knot up and hugged her back, looking at her sisters, who also looked dumbfounded at her beauty.

"Is this the one?" asked Jenny, her voice choking

"Without a doubt." Said 6

5 said nothing; she could only nod in approval. Jenny smiled and went back into the stall after looking at herself in the stall mirror once more, not believing it was her. Was it her? For only a second, Jenny's smile twitched downward.

*****

The girls' moods had completely changed from the way it was in the store by the time they got home at sundown. Jenny hadn't stopped smiling, or talking about how much Ben would like it. Though her sisters were happy for their youngest sibling, they felt as though they didn't know her as well. As if she was keeping so many secrets that she had lost track of who to trust. And what was worst of all, they didn't even know what her simplest goals and desires were. Before all she wanted was to be a normal teenager, now, they don't even know what she's after, only that she's not succeeding.

When Jenny walked in her mother hadn't moved from her seat, she was still working on something, whatever it was she had been going nonstop.

"We're home, mom!" Jenny simply shouted.

"Good I was beginning to worry." Projected the small woman "Did you find something you like?"

"You bet she did!" answered 4

"Well good, then" laughed Nora, and returned to her work.

The three older siblings moved into their chambers and were gossiping about something, Jenny wasn't listening really. Jenny went straight upstairs to the third floor where her room was. Jenny walked passed Gerardo's room, XJ-8 was smiling when she said hello, rather odd. But even still Jenny paid no attention. Once she reached her room she opened her door and put her lovely new dress in her closet and then plopped on her bed in exhaustion.

She barely had time to relieve her sigh when a tap hit her stained glass windows. She looked at the window and waited for another, which happened with perfect timing. Jenny smirked and stood up, adjusting her one-size-too-small, yellow shirt, and opened the window.

"You're such a cliché." She said looking at the well dressed gentleman at the bottom of the building throwing pebbles

"You know you love every minute of it." Responded Ben.

"So true." Laughed Jenny "Let me make a latter."

Jenny extended her arms, making pegs every so many inches for footholds. By the time the latter had begun out the window, Ben had already begun free climbing up the wall of the three story home, using the tree adjacent to Jenny's room and the wall itself. He climbed with great speed and agility, landing in between Jenny's arms before the latter hit bottom.

"Wow," she said blushing and transforming her arms back "That was pretty sexy."

"Is there anything I do that isn't sexy to you?" he laughed getting down from the ledge

"Not much." Her arms retracted and wrapped around his neck. As she smiled at him, he began to rub her thighs, feeling the artificial warmth.

She pulled him closer the moment he did this and kissed him on the mouth. The two began to kiss for a good moment or two before they disconnected and he sat down on her bed, she closed her awesome window panes. She turned to him before moving seductively into his lap and started kissing him again. She took his jacket off and he laid down, she then lay on top of him, kissing with tongue now, and far fierier.

Every second they kissed the more aroused each other became. She began to unbutton his shirt just to feel the muscles beneath it, as she slowly rocked back and forth, creating pleasurable friction. He began to tug on her shirt, she gladly obliged. With two hands and an incredibly seductive back arch, she took her shirt off to reveal a black, lace bra. The two continued to kiss passionately, groping each other and even rolled around on the bed a few times to change who was "on top".

Eventually Jenny was on top again, after some more biting and kissing, she looked at him with a very concerned face.

"What's wrong, love?" He asked feeling her face with one hand.

"I want… I want to take this relationship to the…next level, but…"

"You don't have the right parts." Ben finished for Jenny.

"Exactly." She said very sadly, almost the verge of tears.

"Honey, its fine." He said reassuringly "If we truly care about each other than we can wait until you can get the implants."

"Yea, you're right," she smiled a bit, and lay down atop him.

"Well there are always…other methods, until then." He looked at her, a grand smile on his face.

She smiled back and moved up to kiss her ingenious boyfriend. She slowly worked her way down, kissing him from his neck then to his bellybutton. She there began to undo his belt. He smiled and attempted to unhook her bra. With some difficulty he eventually unhinged it. However, he looked up from his girlfriend's back, to see a hovering robot, something that looked a bit like a radio, fly into the room.

"Uh, Jen," he said "what is that?"

"WHAT THE HELL?" Shouted XJ-5, buzzing about the room. "Are you trying to? …Oh my god! Jenny! What's wrong with you?"

Jenny quickly got up and grabbed the still yelling XJ-5 out of midair and pushed a button on her head until she shut down. After doing so she realized that her bra had fallen off. Embarrassed she quick held her free hand to her chest.

"I-I think you should go," she said, "I can't keep XJ-5 turned off forever, ya know?"

Ben agreed and redressed himself. After doing so, he moved up to Jenny, who still clutched the powered-down XJ-5 to her bosom, and kissed her sweetly.

"I want to see the full product next time, ok?" Joked Ben,

He kissed her once more and with incredible agility, descended the tall home.

*****

Ben walked the rest of the way back toward his apartment in town; he had far too much energy to burn off to ride the bus. He even took a detour past where he and Jenny kissed for the first time. He smiled at the alleyway as he passed it. It's pretty amazing how well her mother took to him despite that night. He would have hated him.

Eventually he passed a gazebo. A small collection of people gathered around a grubby, but potentially good looking, flute player sitting in the gazebo. He stopped and listened for a brief second or two before recognizing the instrument. It was a beautiful hand carved flute, made of what appeared to be ivory and was incrusted with a single green gem.

The flute woman looked at Ben and smiled whilst still playing the ornate instrument. His eyes widened and he turned tail, and began to move with haste. He then saw the flute player bow, take her collected money, and follow Ben. Ben attempted to lose her in an alleyway, _the_ alleyway to be precise. But before he could get far the flute player turned the corner in front of him. The flute player now carried a larger instrument of similar design, but far more complex and abstract with far more gems. She grabbed him, wrapping her arm around his neck before he could escape. She then began playing a song that he knew far too well.

With a rush of nausea the world lit up as waves of white light flowed around him and his body was disassembled and removed from reality. The song was constantly playing as his disassembled body floated through the ether. He felt such amazing, abstract and painful sensations that can only be felt during the Wraith Song.

The song stopped. His body reconnected to the material realm and he fell a few feet to the floor. The room was dark and freezing. The floor was coated with thick layers of ice. A spot light burst into life atop of him, blinding him completely. Only the silhouettes of figures in the distance could be seen in such light. A figure much taller than he walked forth. It was a lithe female figure; she walked with one foot directly in front of the next, a sense of arrogance about her. She was clad in skin tight red and white armor. Her head was all that was exposed. She was beautiful, all of their kind were, her long blonde hair stretched to her hips. Her black, almond-shaped eyes were decorated with an outline of bizarre makeup, symbols of her long dead home world tattooed around her left eye.

"Warlock Kaeris?" Spoke the tall, thin woman, her voice harp-like

"Aye," responded Ben, squinting to see the woman in the high light.

She unsheathed her sword from a scabbard attached to her hip and slapped him across the face with the flat of it. Despite her using the flat edge, the heat it produces seared him along the edges. Ben moved to retaliate, but the tip of the blade was soon pressed to his jugular and singeing his flesh with its intense heat.

"We have grown impatient with your lack of urgency in the conversion of XJ-9, Warlock." She said in an eerie monotone

"It's good to _be_ back, Mistress Ayala." Responded the one known as Kaeris.


	8. Chapter VIII: Affairs of the Heart

_**Greetings my followers, (All 6 of you XP) Mr. N here again delivering the goods! The CSMN series has FINALLY reached a breaking point, this chapter is going to be chalk-full of goodies that will leave the reader guessing and wanting more. I never imagined so many chapters, I originally aimed for a short story, like 10-12 chapters and it's looking more like 15-16 chapters. Not that I have any issues with that because I'm really becoming proud of this story. **_

_** In fact, I'm liking this story so much that a prequel, and maybe if I really like it, a **_**sequel**_** follow-up may be in the talks. But more the prequel since there's so many OC's with so much back story and then there's the entire epic Cluster Counter Invasion that has been mentioned multiple times. So, please, R&R. If enough people like it I will defiantly write a Fanfic on the Counter Invasion plus. :P**_

_** Roll the redundant disclaimer: Sexual Themes, Violence, Language, and Illegitimate Mysticism apparently. O.0 Also, I do not own MLaaTR, Warhammer 40k, or any other copy written materials within the story (Just read). Enjoy Chapter VIII.**_

_** P.S. Yes, Kiwi, the ripped pants were homage to your Fanfic. If you haven't read LadyTrez's stuff, then find a pencil and stab it into the back your hand…. Then go read them, but make sure you put some ice on that. Can't go into shock before you read her story.**_

*****

The Cluster drop ship launched from the ports of Cluster Prime, tearing a rift through reality as it entered the warp. Its destination: Earth. Queen Vexus personally saw the beetle-like drop ship off, her right hand general, Smytus, standing beside her. Despite his respect and unmoving loyalty, he still questioned the loyalty of his own _queen_. She had always been deceitful, manipulative, and complex, but even he could not see where her goals lied. Perhaps she did change when she died, maybe she didn't see as much of a warrior in Smytus as she used to.

The massive brute followed his lithe, red queen back to her chambers. When they arrived, the locust warrior escorts were asked to leave by Vexus. Vexus then told a mindless drone to boil some enriched oils to drink.

"Thirsty, Smytus?" said the queen sitting down in a regal chair that matched her armor in color.

"No thank you." He replied gruffly, his arms crossed in displeasure.

"You seem tense, my love. What is on your mind?" She said sweetly and crossed her legs.

Smytus only grunted and narrowed his eyes.

"Ah, yes." She said receiving the oils from her drone "You wish to know my goals with Cassius."

"It would be most appreciated." He said arrogantly.

"He is lustful for me, you are aware of that, correct?" she said sipping from the ceramic cup.

"Aye." Said the brute, still questioning her motives blatantly.

"I wished to exploit his weakness longer, but events around here are moving rather quickly, it seems." Vexus looked up from her oil. "To assure he was out of my way I sent him to Earth to see Jennifer destroyed him outright, but still gave insight as to our resurrection."

"And what exactly is the goal to be derived from this, m'lady?" asked Smytus impatiently, yet reassured that he was still favored.

"The orb of the Necrons is not an everlasting energy." Spoke Vexus with obvious discomfort "We have maybe a few months before we fall yet again."

"What?" questioned Smytus, sitting down under the weight of the situation "I thought it brought everlasting life?"

"It does," she paused "To its creators."

"Well, can we simply not do what Cassius did again?"

"No, Smytus, I'm afraid it's not that simple." She looked at him with a face of worry, something she does not wear often "Once we fall again, no force can ever return us to life."

Smytus slumped in his seat and gazed emptily at the floor. His mind blown under the threat of the Cluster's imminent extinction.

"However," she said with a spark of hope "There is one way to assure that we never are destroyed."

"And what is that, m'lady?" Smytus scooted himself to the edge of his seat and grabbed his queen's petite, slender hands "I shall assure it be done."

Vexus smiled seeing the weakness of Cassius appearing deep within the eyes of Smytus.

"We must mobilize the bulk of our forces to Solaris." She said smiling at him and clasping his hands with her own,

"Then it's settled," proudly proclaimed Smytus standing up with a massive, arrogant grin "I shall set charter for Earth immediately."

"Yet again, not that simple." Said Vexus taking yet another sip daintily from her oil "For starters who said anything about Earth? We must mobilize for the planet Mars, our true objective lays there."

"As you wish." Said Smytus with a hint of mistrust

"Also, my love." She spoke softly, using the pet name as if it were a weapon "The Council will not approve an aggressive move so early. Not after the devastation caused here so long ago. We cannot rely on them to take their time either, for they do not understand the nature of the Necron technology."

"W-what are you asking me to do, m'lady?" Smytus trembled, knowing the answer yet hoping he was somehow wrong.

"Call an aristocrat's celebration! Bring, the council, all of the noble families, all those involved with the Necron research project, all those but the most necessary." She proclaimed looking up at him gleefully sociopathic "Kill them all."

*****

Five figures now stood over the spy named Kaeris, each diverse in their outfits, looks, and attitudes. The one on his far right was an average sized, wry woman. Her armor was similar to that of Mistress Ayala's; skin-tight and red, with the exception of the primary armor plates which were colored bone. She would have a very pretty face for not the gothic make-up and wicked scars covering her face. She bore long black hair that was tied in a pony tail and haunting purple eyes.

The man beside her was the tallest and largest of the group. He was broad shouldered and grievously bulky. He wore solid black armor inscribed with eldritch runes and intricate tribal designs. His head was completely concealed by a savage, angry, skull-faced helm that gazed into Kaeris's soul with beading red eyes. He carried what looked to be a black scythe, however, the bottom expanded into a bulbous trigger.

The woman in the center was none other than leader of the operation, Farseer and High Mistress Ayala. With her beady black eyes, she scowled at Kaeris, obvious disgust and disappointment in her distorted face.

Beside her, was a shorter man, he was bald except for a long lock of black hair that stand atop his skull in a knot. He stood strongly and proudly, cavernous scars making him look as if he were constantly smirking. He held himself perfectly straight and upright with a toothed, motorized sword that was encrusted in gold. He wore armor like his comrades; his however, was emerald green. Not a spot of red or bone was to be found.

Lastly was the man who had attempted to convince Kaeris to act in tune, Fortunatus. His helm had been removed, yet he still wore the bulky suit of armor that made him capable of short distance warp travel. Despite being completely bald, Fortunatus looked very similar to Kaeris. Distinct features matched the two perfectly, but there was still quite a bit of internal difference between the two.

"We expected to have XJ-9 within the fortress by now, beginning briefing and preparation," spoke the black warrior spitefully in a booming, ethereal echo "But we see that you have taken the path of irresponsibility and foolish revelry."

"Quite," continued the Green warrior, speaking quickly, in a high pitched, scholarly tone "You have shown us that you were not the one for this project."

"You have left us with little options Warlock." Said Ayala "You convinced us that you were capable of taking control of this mission of infiltration, yet you have obviously chosen to become more than friends with the target."

"Very irresponsible." Said the harp-voiced Fortunatus, turning to Ayala and her equals "He has proven weak and emotionally swayable, he is a danger to the operation and must be terminated."

"Agreed," spoke the gothic woman with a snarl "I begin to wonder if he ever saw the events in… what was that blasted place called again?"

"Tremorton." Said the green man edgily

"Ah yes, Tremorton." Said the Bone woman bitterly caustic "I'm beginning to wonder if… Tremorton was not a hoax. A plan to get you romantically close to XJ-9, perhaps."

Kaeris said noting, he only sat on his knees looking down at the ice, awash with light, as if he were a scolded child.

"That is a tad far-fetched, Cardea." Said Ayala turning to the gothic female "Besides, I too have seen the terrible events that Earth is about to undergo. The true question I ask is: if you too have seen them, Kaeris, then why are you so leisurely avoiding the mission? You know exactly what the Necrontyr will do to those people."

Kaeris said nothing. He just looked at his knees, feeling the ice shoot icy pains up his thighs. Cardea snarled at the young man's insolence. She marched forth, striking Kaeris across the face with her slender, bone-colored gauntlet.

"Speak to your superior when she speaks, you ungrateful insect." Spat the tall woman.

Kaeris turned vengefully to look up at Cardea in the light; his major deformity was able to be seen. His ears were obviously surgically modified; scars run up the tip of his cartilage, the area where the other's of his kind have a sharp point.

"I have nothing to say." He said confidently to Cardea, who scowled down at him again.

"We obviously shouldn't have trusted your judgment, Miss Ayala." Boomed the black man "As I see it, the Dark Reapers have no purpose here."

"I apologize, Lord Maugan Ra," said Ayala disappointedly looking at Kaeris "But the Necrontyr is a threat to this world, and we mustn't take it lightly."

"He seems to be doing just that." spoke the Phoenix Lord with a glare at Kaeris. Maugan Ra turned around and walked into the shadows.

"It appears that we may have to take a more direct action," spoke the green warrior. "Fortunatus, when can your Spiders mobilize?"

"No!" Interjected Kaeris before Fortunatus before he could respond "You can't do that, Lord Esaias!"

The collection of vibrant authority turned to the lesser, his disrespect causing a look of distain to spread across the group. Even Maugan Ra turned in shock to see the disregard for his superiors.

"You can't use force on the Mon'kei…" said Kaeris, wittily thinking of an excuse "They would counter our unexpected appearance en masse with military force. They do not take highly to strangers."

"Hmm," pondered Lord Esaias, rubbing his chin and leaning further on his sword "And why should we trust your judgment, young one?"

"In five Terran days… there will be a festival for those of young age." He said, sweating with fear of his and other's lives "The Mon'kei call it a Prom. Give me until then, your graces. I have foreseen the events of that night and Jenny will become aware of the situation."

The groups stood around the young man-thing, questioning the credibility of his words.

"Jenny?" Questioned Ayala.

"Jenny Wakemen… that is her name." said Kaeris resolute. His deep blue eyes met Ayala's black eyes, a moment of serendipitous communication met with the two unique characters.

"That's rich!" bellowed Fortunatus in roaring laughter "The warlock boy has eyes for a Mon'kei machine!"

Fortunatus's laughter was soon echoed by the booming voice of Maugan Ra off in the darkness. Soon the snide and sickly screeching of Cardea joined in the mockery of Kaeris. Even the stalwart Esaias smirked a tad as he spoke. Only Ayala remained despondent.

"And why would we allow you to take an Earth maiden to a ball?" laughed Esaias as he finished his sentence, unable to hold back from the hilarity.

"Because I too have foreseen these events." Spoke Ayala emotionlessly, her jaw slacked a tad.

The group's caustic laughter ceased. They all turned to the tall, beautiful woman whose voice sang of clarity. There was no doubt in the way that she spoke that she was being truthful.

"Something cataclysmic will happen in five Terran days. I can feel it, deep in my bones." Said Ayala with an unshakeable truth in her voice

Esaias looked at the woman questioningly, but soon nodded his head in approval. The others in the group did the same, excluding Fortunatus who snarled at Ayala for her weak resolve. Kaeris gave a half smile at the expense of Ayala, who stared at him still with her face devoid of emotion.

"Alright," said Esaias reluctantly "I approve."

"As do I." Boomed Maugan Ra returning into the light

"Fine." Cardea snorted

"Then it is settled, you have five Terran days to inform XJ-… Jenny of the given circumstances." Said Ayala "But beware, young Warlock. If you shall fail, great consequences shall follow."

"Yes Madam, your wish is my command." Spoke Kaeris gratefully standing up and bowing.

"Bonesinger." Yelled Esaias, the Flute woman stepped from the shadows, brandishing the large, ivory pipe "Return Kaeris back to Tremorton."

The Bonesinger wrapped her arm around Kaeris, and began playing the enchanted Wraith Song. As the light of the bending universe wrapped around him, Kaeris made a smile at Ayala. She looked at him, her face still unmoved, and projected her thoughts into his conscious mind:

_I was, too, in love once._ Spoke the psychic whisper.

The council let loose; the members exiting through a round, well lit portal that was carved into the ice. Esaias simply stood and looked as the spotlight faded and the small room was dimly lit throughout. His grim expression complex, yet stern.

"Are you coming, my lord?" Spoke Fortunatus eagerly

"Do you believe the Mistress, Fortunatus?" asked the green warrior.

"My lord?" Questioned the belittled character

"How quickly can you mobilize your Spiders, Exarch?" said Esaias with little emotion and trust, turning to meet Fortunatus's gaze

Fortunatus smirked at the wickedness of his leader "Immediately," He responded.

*****

"This is bullshit!" barked Brad.

"Jenny isn't going to listen to anything we say, and if we do anything about it while Ben is there, we're dead men, dude." Said Sheldon with a melancholic tone

"Exactly, bullshit." Repeated Brad

The group sat outside the high school on a Tuesday afternoon. They couldn't hang out with Jenny; they couldn't stand being around the poser and liar that is Ben. They needed to separate the two; Ben was only going to break Jenny's heart. The only question now was how.

"So," interjected Tuck "Why exactly are we trying to break Jenny up with her boyfriend.

"He's a bad man Tuck." Explained Sheldon angrily, not towards Tuck, but toward Ben

"How? He's been nothing but nice to me!" argued Tuck naively

"It's all a façade," barked Bradley again, "You wouldn't understand it anyway."

"Okay then," Tuck smirked arrogantly "Explain it to me Mr. Know-it-all, since my feeble childish brain is not capable of understanding such things as jealousy and apathy when I see them in plain black and white."

"Are you saying I'm jealous of that prick, you little shit?" Brad marched up to his pint-sized brother whom was sitting on the stone banister.

"Maybe I am?" Challenged Tuck sliding off the banister, his brother moved back "Maybe I'm the only true friend of Jenny's that I can't simply be happy for her when she got what she deserved and let the problems that be, be."

Tuck stomped down the stair case, ignoring his brother and Sheldon, both of which were flabbergasted by Tucks sudden burst of courage.

"I'm going home, Aunt Clara will want you home soon, Bradley." He said without looking back "I'd suggest you finish brooding and come home."

Brad and Sheldon stood in awed silence.

"Dude," spoke Sheldon, breaking the silence "He just scorched your ass."

Brad looked at Sheldon scornfully, but sadly knew that Tuck had some truth in his words. He hated Ben long before the "Bathroom Fiasco". Was it jealousy… did Brad… feel for Jenny? _No, that's impossible._ He thought …_Is it?_

"Seems you need some help breaking up the 'happy couple'" spoke a Southern accented man from the shadows. "I think we can help each other."

A man in a white suit stepped from the shadows of the school's front archway; he was clean cut, handsome, tan and had a devilishly constant grin of sharp teeth. The man wore thick, horn-rimmed sunglasses, incapable of seeing the deviant's eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Questioned Brad

"You can call me Black," said the agent "Mr. Black."

*****

The next few days at Tremorton High had become increasingly tense. Brad and Sheldon won't even talk to Jenny anymore, and she was beginning to wonder if she had done something wrong. It was irrelevant though, she was with the one man she thought she'd never have a chance with, and tomorrow she was going to her senior prom with him.

Life seems it had finally turned 180 degrees around for her. She was free of militant duties, she was becoming a normal teenager, and soon, she'd graduate, and her life as a young woman will begin. She only wished that the end of the year wasn't as tense and harsh with her friends she loved so much. She wanted to relish in her last moments as a kid with them, but no, they were usually nowhere to be found, and if they could be found they were very bitter.

It was Friday afternoon, the sun was about to set, Jenny waited outside of the school for her boyfriend. He had a test to make up, and she was willing to wait for him. It's that devotion that made them such a good couple. She leaned against a pole, one leg bracing herself against it, her blue skirt hiking pleasingly up. A set of black cords lead from her pink hand purse to her ears. The music played and Jenny closed her eyes and let the music drift her away.

_I don't need to fight, to prove I'm right,_ It sang.

_I don't need to be forgiven._

_Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah_

Jenny sensed a presence near her; soon its shadow covered her sunlight. She opened her eye slightly to get a view of the person. It was Brad, his lips moving to speak; she could not hear him over the music.

_Don't cry_

_ Don't raise your eye_

_ It's only a teenage wasteland, _Her friend appeared to sing.

She pulled her earphones off and dropped her leg off the pole, not wanting her best friend to see anything too racy of her.

"Hey Jen, we need to talk?" he said awkwardly shuffling his feet and rubbing his neck.

"Sure, what's up?" She said questioningly

He wore his favorite pair of dark sunglasses. But even with them on, she could see that there was desperation and fear in his eyes.

"You see… a man… approached me…" he started off sluggishly

"He didn't offer you candy did he?" she asked jokingly, he did not smile, he only sweat

"It's about Ben…" he blurted out difficultly

"What about Ben?" said Jenny, a hint of worry in her voice.

Brad could not speak; a lump was inside his throat. He needed to tell her, he wanted to spare her the pain... but something was stopping him.

"What is it Brad?" Jenny spat his name

"He's not who he says he is… he's not from here…" shuddered Brad, sweating beads now

"What are you trying to tell me Brad?"

"This man," sweat Brad, "He works for the government and-"

"Oh, so a federal agent talked to you?" Said Jenny aggravated "Brad, those guys are full of shit"

"Jenny, listen…" he said worriedly

"No Brad, I won't." she stomped away from the pole "I've taken your criticism long enough. You think I don't know about you and Sheldon hating on Ben? You ought to watch who you tell things too."

"Jenny, he's not-"

"Not what?" Demanded Jenny "Not good enough for me? Not the right guy? What? Tell me!"

"He's not from Earth!" He yelled, grabbing her shoulders, his glasses fell onto his nose; his eyes were red from a battle to keep tears at bay. "He's an alien spy, Jenny. He doesn't care about you."

Jenny contorted her face. But soon it became stern and angry.

"You know what Brad? You've done a lot of stupid shit, but this? This is unforgiveable." She ripped her arms from his grip and began to walk away "You're just afraid of him taking me away from you aren't you? You're sick!"

"Jenny I'm telling the truth!" he yelled, his voice cracking "He's using you!"

"For what?" she yelled back

"I-I don't know." He solemnly responded.

She only shook her head.

"But Sheldon saw him get his ass beat last week. It was by a federal agent. He overheard-"

"ENOUGH!" she boomed, rattling windows. "You are just a jealous little pig."

"Why is everyone thinking that?" He questioned rhetorically.

"Maybe because you claim to be this all time playboy and you can't get a single date because you act arrogant and selfish." She proclaimed viciously

"Excuse me? I'm trying to save you from heart ache Jenny! I don't want you falling in love for someone who doesn't feel the same or even care."

"You wouldn't know love if it slapped you in the face!"

"I just might take that!" he responded.

Jenny extended her arm and struck Brad across the face with her open hand, a sickening smack replying. The blow from her immense strength knocked him off his feet. He looked up at her, his glasses had fallen off, his eyes were blood shot, his teeth bloody from a broken lip and cracked tooth.

"Oh my god," said Jenny, on the verge of impossible tears "I-I didn't mean to-"

"You know what, it's cool." Said Brad standing up, wiping dirt from his clothes and blood from his lip "I guess you just don't need me as a friend anymore."

He walked away from the school, leaving behind a pair of crushed sunglasses and a sobbing Jenny.


	9. Chapter VIV: Bloodied Corsage

_**Hellooooo fan-ficers (that's your name now. Like it!)! This is going to be a short intro since I feel I've said everything I can already :P. Only thing I have to say; Kiwi: This is kind of a rigged competition, you have WAY shorter chapters than I do, but you could have more. 0.o We shall see who reaches "Complete" status in due time. :) Until then, Chapter 9! :D **_

_**As always: Blood, Gore, Violence, Illegitimate Mysticism, Sexual Themes, and Crass Language. No ownership of any kind, other than the characters that do not exist in either MLaaTR or 40k. Enjoy:**_

Jenny had struggled for the past few hours before prom to get everything perfect. She was stressed; she had removed and reapplied make-up over and over again, constantly doubting that she was pretty at all despite the whines of protest of her three older sisters. Jenny was not yet in her brilliant dress, she was in the bare minimums; a black tank top and her underwear, exposing some of the circuitry that makes her hips look "wider".

They all remembered their conversation from Monday, all except Jenny of course. An awkward twinge would flow through the three androids, XJ-4, 5 and 6, every time Jenny mentioned her date.

"Damn it!" shouted Jenny to her sisters through the mirror "Eye shadow on my right eye, it's off isn't it?"

"No Jen." Said 6 "We've been over this time and time again; you look fine, you're over reacting."

"B-but." Stammered Jenny trying to protest

"But nothing, Hun." Said 5 "You're gorgeous."

"I just want Ben to think that," the group winced as Jenny spoke "How can he if_ I_ don't think _I _look good. And I don't even know what to do with my hair! Ugh, these stupid rockets are not going to work!"

"I have a theory on that." Spoke the English accented woman from behind her.

Jenny turned and smiled at her mother.

"Come on, to my work bench. We don't have long." Jenny looked to her sisters for some explanation, they shrugged. Jenny then quickly got up and followed her mother to her work bench. Upon arrival, her mother asked her politely to lay her head on the bench. Jenny didn't exactly see what she was doing, she just saw a flash of bright blue light and her "Intense Heat and Pressure" and "Hull Breached" klaxons armed in her eyes. She freaked out a bit as her mother severed her pigtail rockets from her head.

In a few short and very frightening moments, Nora had cut off and replaced her hair-like vises and completely repainted the spots where the welding torches immense heat eroded the paint. Jenny stood up and felt the empty space where her rockets used to be. She now felt a single, smooth, metal replacement. Her sisters looked at her shocked at the amazements of their mother's mechanical skills. Jenny quickly ran to a reflective surface, when she saw the girl in the mirror she immediately ran and hugged her mother, verging on tears.

"It's perfect!" she shouted giving herself a second glance in amazement. Where her duel rockets once sat a large, metal pony-tail of sorts. "I know exactly what to do now! Thank you so much mom!"

Jenny hugged her mother again and gleefully slid down her the banister to the ground floor. As she ran to her room with gusto, she bumped shoulders with XJ-8.

"Oh hey sis." spoke the Automaton with glee. "Wow, you look really pretty."

"Thanks." She said awkwardly at her normally stalwart and emotionless sister's uplifted spirit. Jenny dismissed it and ran to her room again, and began working on her make-up knowing exactly what to do. But as she did that, she realized that something had caught her thigh circuitry. A small metal chain, with a cog as a pendant, was trapped in her joint. She pulled it out and examined it, rubbing her thumb across the skull shape inscribed into the center of the cog.

"Ow! Damn it!" shouted Jenny in pain as a shock of energy, as if it were statically charged, transferred through Jenny's hand, into her arm and down to her core, where her faux heart was. The pain was brief but intense, forcing her to drop the talisman. Jenny looked at it and wondered where it came from… and better yet how and why it hurt her.

Smytus rubbed his hands nervously together as the mass of wealthy people of the hierarchy entered the lavish ball room. The walls were lined with golden silk, and the drapes of a deep, gossamer crimson. A beautiful crystal chandelier composed of crystal scarabs hung high above the red carpet, on the vaulted, gaudy ceiling.

Smytus looked up at the paintings that were drawn on the ceiling by Cluster artists. He saw the eight symbols of the Council, his stood out the most. It was of a human soldier, but not just any soldier, a Spartan. The Spartans were the most deadly and feared of all of the ancient Greeks, and their legends, even for human legends, were spectacular. His namesake was drawn wearing ancient brass armor and grim helm, the profile of which was painted onto Smytus's own shoulder plate. Smytus was a lesser known, but possibly the deadliest Spartan. His untimely demise at the ill fated battle of Thermopylae, was far from tribute to his achievements. It is said that Smytus, formally known as Atilios, was the only Greek to climb mount Olympus, and he stood at the gates of the gods in defiance of their laws and orders, slaying their greatest monsters and pets to gain word with them. In return for his courage, he was granted one gift from the gods. He did not wish immortality, or wealth, or ultimate power. He asked for a name, a name only the mighty and utterly devoted may bare: Smytus, meaning to Smite with wrath… a name even the gods would fear.

"'Tis a great turn out lord." Spoke the sickly Krackus

"Aye, it is." Returned Smytus snapping back to reality

"Why is the Queen not present?" Spoke the surgeon with a cough.

"Previous engagement."

"Ah, 'tis no life like that of a diplomat. Perhaps one day I could hold a seat on the Council of Eight? Right, Lord?"

Smytus only snarled at the sickly scientist. The small machine humbled himself, and left Smytus and joined in conversation with some of the other people at the reception. A metallic, faceless, humanoid walked up to Smytus.

"That is all of the guest list, lord." It spoke in a deep, monotone.

"Excellent, the sooner we can wrap this up the sooner we can move to our second phase."

"Yes, Lord." The Locust Warrior gestured to the two others of his kind at the massive double-doors. The bipedal half-man, half-machine slaves closed the golden, gaudy doors with ease. The Warrior next to Smytus made another gesture to the other two warriors across the room that guarded the other door, they followed in suite.

The hall buzzed with activity for some time. Smytus was waiting for the right moment to strike; he did not want them to suspect their eminent fate. The guilt began to fade away over the next hour of watching these sleazy, rich, undeserving individuals. They were scum wrapped up in a nice shell. They did not deserve a place in their world, not in the new one Vexus has planned for them. No, this new society is not communistic, but spiritualistic. No need for bureaucracy, or laws, or orders of diplomats. No checks, no balances. This would be a new Cluster Initiative, and Smytus believed in it… he believed in his Queen.

After being sickened for an hour of the forced conversations of the aristocrats, he finally took his place upon the podium. The crowd roared and chanted the name "Cluster". He raised his palms to silence them.

"My people, followers of the Cluster Initiative, members of the grand Council of Eight, veterans of wars past, lend me your ears." The crowd roared as Smytus finished his words. He winced, containing the rage within him only barely. He raised his palms again. "As Admiral of the Cluster Armada, and right hand to the Commander and Chief of the Cluster Empire, Queen Vexus, I shall represent her in her absence."

He read his speech through his inner eyes, as he read; each word resonated within him, making him feel the power of the Queen's own writing.

"As we look upon the rebirth of this great world, we shall not forget what brought us to this ruination in the first place. We were arrogant, cocky, self indulgent. But no more, with this second chance bestowed upon us we shall assure that we are never to fall again."

The crowd cheered, and Smytus grinned as his energy and charisma built.

"We shall do away with the Cluster Initiative of our faulted past. We as a society have so much more potential than what we have already been given. I say, out with the Socialism, out with the laws, out with the unnecessary orders that have lead us down this path of damnation and desolation."

Whispers of concern flowed through the room.

"We shall form under the laws of a proud race, long before our time. We will learn from our mistakes to build a society under the one true law; the true law, formed by the Necrons and their righteous gods."

As he said this, approximately two squadrons of Locust Warriors entered the ball room, on the floor above them, and the ground floor. They readied and aimed their weapons at the crowd of roughly two-hundred or so. Smytus raised his palm as the commotion and screams of terror began to rise within the room.

"What is the meaning of this, Spartan?" spoke the ancient, steaming, Jeremiah, sage of the Council of Eight.

"This, grand sage, is the start of the age of the C'tan." Smytus bellowed. "And you people serve no purpose in it."

As the crowd looked at Smytus, they grabbed their loved ones and attempted to escape, but there was no escape, they could only watch. Watch, as Smytus closed his hand into a tight fist, signaling the open fire. Outside the grand ball room, palace serfs and civilians passed by, ignorant of the mass slaughter that took place on the other side of the carved doors.

Kaeris stirred nervously outside of the Wakemen home, he had no idea how to present himself for the occasion. He ran lines through his head multiple times and everything sounded either too rehearsed or too laid back. He felt the intensity of it all creeping up on him, despite how he presented himself, the evening was set to be ruined, but not by him. He was not sure what would ruin the prom, but he knew his identity would falter regardless.

With that in mind, Kaeris walked up to the lit doorway of the three story observatory. He wanted to make his last moments as Jenny's boyfriend meaningful. He wrapped on the door, and after a few seconds and the sound of arguing on the other side, the door was opened, by a four legged machine with a head that resembled a computer monitor of decade's past.

"Oh! Hi!" its spoke with an adolescent giggle. "You must be Ben. Come in"

"Thank you miss…" said Kaeris entering, waiting for a response.

"Oh, you can call me 6." Her digital face forming a smile as she spoke. XJ-6 extended her arm as a gesture of greeting. He shook her hand like a he would any girl, kissing it first. She squealed and her green, digital cheeks flushed.

It wasn't long before he was blocked by a body of other robots in multi-colored armor plating. All of the robot girls had their own unique personality and look, all of which clustered upon Kaeris with glee and praise. The mass of machines scattered as a British accented women descended from her observation deck.

"Girls! Leave the poor boy alone." She shouted.

"Thank you, Dr. Wakemen." He said taking his black fedora off in respect.

"Please, Ben, call me Nora. Sorry about the girls, Ben, they don't see the male variety very often. Especially not one as well dressed and mannered as you." She responded as she met him on the ground floor. She wore a simple, dark dress, rather casual. She wore a yellow rain coat over that. She gestured him to follow her.

"You might want to join me at my work bench. Jenny's still getting ready." She began back up the steps. As he reached the top he noticed that a man sat with his booted feet on a table in front of him as he read a dirty magazine. The man wore a red robe over his grotesque, misshapen, form.

"Top of the evening" spoke the Irishman without looking up. Kaeris slowly began to reach into the inner pocket of his tuxedo coat, where his intricately carved blade was hidden.

"W-who is that?" he asked Nora.

"Oh, that pillock? He's Gerardo, a former colleague of mine. He's harmless, mostly." She responded unthreatened by the cultist of an ancient enemy within her midst.

"Oh," he said taking his hand away from his blade, but still cautiously looking at the grotesque figure. "I see."

After a few moments of interesting conversation with his girlfriend's mother, the girl of the eve had come out of her room, ushered by three of the robots that met Kaeris at the door. She was beautiful, her exo-skin was pale white as it always was, but her hair and lips radiated with a deep blue that was much different than her normal shade. Her eyes were shadowed with a deep purple, complimenting of the rest of her face. She was in a long, light-blue gown that clung to her form, making her look figured and poised. He could not believe the sight of his girlfriend and her awesome beauty.

"Hey, Ben." She said gracefully striding on her high heels, her one exposed leg accentuating the full ensemble to perfection. "Are you ready to go?"

"Of course I am" He smiled, and then jumped off the open rafter with ease. "I'm always ready for you."

She smiled at him and grabbed his hand. She turned to the door, ready to begin the greatest night of her life.

"Well then," she blushed mildly, avoiding eye contact at first, but then looking up at him "We shouldn't wait around then."

The two headed for the door but were barred off by Nora. She was brandishing an old, Tens Era camera.

"I know this a total 'mom' thing to do, but I have to get a picture." She held the camera up to the happy couple and took a photo of them as they pulled close to each other. Nora pulled the camera away and looked at the screen, tears welting in her eyes.

"Oh my god, Jenny." She looked to her "youngest" daughter "When did you grow up so fast? And when did you become so gorgeous."

"Oh, mom." Jenny laughed, feeling embarrassed yet nostalgic of the lost years, not unlike her mother. She leaned down to the short woman and hugged her, too feeling close to crying.

"Well you two go, have a good time. You only get to live once right?" said Dr. Wakemen, obviously fighting off tears of joy and sadness.

After the couple had exited the house, Nora headed back to her workbench, where she was assembling a series of pictographs. After a short period of fiddling, the pictographs sprang to life with vibrant images of Nora's past. Images of her past with Jenny and the XJ's. She thumbed through the selection, feeling a tear drop with each button press. It was just yesterday Jenny was entering high school for the first time, dealing with simple high school issues, battling alien robots and invaders without question. So much has changed since then. Now she is starting life as a normal person, not just a normal teenager, but an adult. She thumbed and saw the last picture in the album. It said December 25, 2055 "Merry Christmas from the Wakemen's". The family clung around a massive, yet intricate artificial tree. She looked at every single one of the XJ's with a loving fervor she is not used to showing. Jenny sat at the far right, her knees held up by her arms. She was smiling, happy with whom she was on the outside, and knowledgeable of her inner beauty. Times were good back then, but the times are changing.

Jenny and Kaeris walked to the school; there was no need to drive, she lived minutes from the school in walking distance. As they walked they held each other's hands, not talking much. Jenny would just laugh occasionally when she would see the man she knew as Ben look at her. Every time she looked up at him, he was smiling down on her.

"What are you looking at?" she giggled.

"Well isn't it obvious?" he smiled. She looked at him puzzled but still half smiling.

"What is?" she continued the trend of answering questions with questions.

"It's you." He said "I've never seen someone so beautiful."

"You're just saying that." She blushed.

"No," he stopped and turned her into him "I'm not."

His voice was pure and completely truthful. She met his eyes with hers, he rubbed her shoulder. The moment was tense for what seemed like hours, before he leaned in and kissed her.

"We should get going." He said, she still somewhat in the kissing position.

"Oh, yea, right." She smiled as she felt the extreme emotion she felt for "Ben" flow through her. This was what love was like.

The two turned back and began to walk toward the school. As they walked, holding hands yet again, Kaeris felt his mind locate a presence. It wasn't within site, but it was close. And the stench of its soul, how corrupt and twisted it was, he knew exactly who was lurking in the shadows.

He looked back at a home they had just passed; its roof top was completely black. He scowled at the shadow as if to challenge it.

"What's wrong, Hun?" asked Jenny.

"What? Huh? Oh, nothing." He responded "Just thought I saw something."

As Kaeris turned around and picked his pace up slightly, the roof top shadows danced, jumping from roof to roof.

"He suspects us, Exarch, we must make haste; claim the objective before he fails." spoke the Warp Spider into his helmet speaker.

"No," responded Fortunatus with venom "I wish to see my brother fail before I slay him."

The dance was all but legendary. The gym had been extravagantly redone to a point of magnificence. The music selection was crafted by someone with a great mind to what the generation listened too. It was mostly retro music from the early Ten's and late new millennium; the classics.

As Kaeris and Jenny walked in, they were met by a wave of grand energy. Jenny was quite literally jumping with excitement. A new song started, Jenny's face lit up.

"Oh my god I love this song!" she squealed, dragging him by his arm to the dance floor.

"Oh… okay…" said Kaeris with protest in his voice. He had never studied Terran _dances_. He never saw any need in doing so; but he was a fast learner. Jenny pulled him out and began moving her hips with and body with the rhythm of the song. She was good, great in fact. She was classy yet seductive in her own right. He scanned the dance floor for another male getting decent public attention with his dance moves. He copied in suite; frighteningly well. Soon enough the young couple was almost dueling in the way they moved, soon a crowd had formed around them. They were incredible. Once the song had finished and they shuffled off the dance floor.

Several hours had passed, Kaeris was getting antsy, and he had talked with several of the people there and danced with Jenny for basically two hours alone. It was a great party; waiting for the axe to drop had ruined it. Kaeris sat on the table where he, Jenny, and several others of _her _friends were hanging out. He did not see where his girlfriend wandered off too. His eyes somehow were attracted to the open doors that lead out to the landing on the school steps. There a man with red hair and a tuxedo without his jacket was leaning on the banister, Jenny beside him.

His acute hearing zoned in on the conversation:

"Listen, I'm sorry," Jenny spoke apathetically "I shouldn't have reacted like that."

"You had all right to do so Jen," the man responded "I'm just an idiot."

"Brad, don't do this, not tonight."

"What's so special about tonight?" he said, there was a slur in his speech, as if he was mildly to moderately drunk. Kaeris slowly worked his way over to the landing discreetly.

"Brad, I don't want our last days here to be like this. We've been friends all of high school. Let's end it on a good note." Desperation was heavy in her voice.

"Not while he's around."

Jenny scowled at him and looked up to see Kaeris approaching.

"Hey, Ben." She said changing her tone and moving up to him.

"Hey," replied Kaeris, Brad walked back into the gym, purposely bumping into Kaeris. "What's-"

"It's nothing" said Jenny cutting him off "Let's go back inside okay?"

As they walked back in, the events to come were revealed to him through the psychic channels of the immaterium; he had one hour to assure Jenny was happy before it was all demolished. He pulled her on to the dance floor with gusto.

"Com'on!" he yelled "Like your mom said: 'you only live once.'"

She giggled as he pulled her close to him, placing his arms on her hips, grinding against her. She responded in a similar manner, moving her hips to the hardcore rhythm. Every time the song changed they switched to a new type of dance, they were both great at every single one.

After about a half hour of doing so, the contest winners were announced. The majority were boring and predictable. Brittany Crust won prom queen of course, only because Tiff had one last year's junior prom. Jenny sat with her arm keeping her head up; both of them were bored, until one of the judges called their names. They jolted into interest, wondering if they did something wrong just out of instinct. Quite the opposite, they had won best dancers! Jenny and Kaeris ran up to the stage to accept their reward. Jenny grabbed it and held it above her head triumphantly. Kaeris immediately after pulled her in by the waist and elaborately kissed her, tipping her down and all. The crowd roared.

And as he pulled away and they walked off stage, she noticed even Brad was clapping. He was next to Sheldon who surprisingly had his own human date. For that moment, even though she and her friends were in a dispute, she was content. They barely got a chance to place their trophy on their table, where their group met them with applause, and a slow song was played.

"Well let's give the 'Best Dancers' a chance to show what they've got." Spoke that charismatic DJ. "Here's a classic one, 'Thinking of You', Katy Perry."

Jenny and Kaeris smiled at one another in a signal that they both wanted to go and dance. They were the only ones on the dance floor, a bright pink light awash them. She held his shoulders; he held her waist, her head pressed on his chest. The couple gracefully transversed across the dance floor, soon a contingent of dance filled the room. Several other couples flocked around the inspirational couple and began dancing. Jenny's beautiful blue dress twirled as she danced with the man she was falling hard over. Awash with the red light she looked up to him, she saw his bluish-purple eyes without the sunglasses to bar them away. With the song, and the dancing, and the light, and everything about him, she realized something.

"Ben." She whispered.

He looked down at her, half smiling at her extremely serious face.

"I love you." She said clearly without hesitation, meaning it fully.

As she spoke his eyes welted up with tears, not from the words but from the psychic pain as the events he foresaw and what were about to happen met on the planes of material and immaterial, forming reality.

"I'm sorry," he whispered

Jenny looked at him and distorted her face in confusion, disappointment and forming worry. "What?" she asked, obviously angry at his response

"GET DOWN!" he bellowed, grabbing Jenny and diving off the dance floor. A crashing force smashed down on the gym roof. Debris and chunks of building caved in onto the group of scattering teenagers. Jenny looked up to see, through the dust, six figures smash into the gymnasium with violent force. The impact of the invaders caused a bow wave to arc and dispatch the dust cloud enveloping the interior of the room.

"Ha ha, I always love party crashin'!" spoke a mechanized southern voice.

"No…" said Jenny, still on the floor, pinned down by the gravity of the situation. "This is… impossible."

The dust cleared, and five silver, metallic humanoids formed a ring around another, golden humanoid robot. The robot in the center stood confident and arrogant.

"Cassius!" bellowed Jenny standing up.

"Well, Miss Jenny, seems like you've got a mighty fine reception here." Responded the Southern-like Cluster agent "Have you lost weight?"

"How are you still alive?" shouted Jenny, clenching her fists in surmounting anger. "Isn't killing your whole race enough?"

"For the record, Miss Jenny, I escaped before the palace was firebombed. And another note for the record, the Cluster is not dead. We have risen from the ash like phoenixes and we are thrivin'"

Kaeris saw Jenny's anger build up insider her. "You're a filthy liar, Cassius."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, cupcake." Cassius laughed at Jenny's denial "Oh, what do we have here?"

Cassius reached his arm out to a girl who was attempting to escape the ring of machines with a broken foot, by crawling on the dust ridden floor. Cassius's arm transformed into a massive, electrically charged, claw. He enveloped her with the claw, consuming her entire body. He grabbed her arm and spun in circles whilst humming, as if satirically to dance with her as she desperately attempted escape.

"Release her!" Shouted Jenny with indomitable rage.

"Hmm." Cassius chuckled, but then changed to dead-pan seriousness "Come and get her."

"Gladly" Jenny charged with expert fluency at the nearest charging Locust Warrior. It brought its massive pulse riffle down to bear on her, firing it into the floor. Jenny, a full head and shoulder shorter than the once-human slaves, jumped onto him, transforming her arm into a blade, driving it into his chest. As she pushed off by transforming her other wrist into a small, duel-barreled, sub-machine gun, firing several rounds into the warrior before he died with a series of violent spasms.

Jenny's landing was echoed with cheering from the frightened partiers. Before long, Jenny was attacked from behind; a Locust holding a massive glaive smashed it down into the gymnasium floor, shattering the concrete. She jumped out of the way, flipping over its head, her dress forming a "watercolor" like tail behind her. As she jumped she fired several rounds into the helm of the robot, most ricocheting off of the faceless machine-man. She landed behind him, driving the blade into its heart from behind before it could respond. Another stood behind her, attempting to hit her with the butt of its riffle. She spun on her heel, slicing the neck of the machine as it pulled the trigger. Thick, black, blood-like fluids sprayed from the open wound. Jenny leaned back as the blackness shot out at her, avoiding getting any on her lavish dress. The two dead warriors fell limp and crashed into the debris covered floor simultaneously.

A shot from a riffle fired. She dodged out of its way, avoiding harm. Her dress how ever caught the blaze creating a smoldering, baseball sized hole in the dress at her knee. She looked up at the two Locust warriors that now opened fire at her. She rolled and crouched behind one of their fallen comrades, taking cover. After a few moments she stood up, her wrist transformed into a bracelet of small, short range missiles. She fired three at the Cluster soldiers. As the missiles shot, Cassius held the girl tight and rolled out of range of the blast.

The metallic, mindless drones were obliterated in the fiery blaze of overkill. The fight, in all, had taken less than thirty, mind-blowing seconds. Jenny stood proud, a little dusty but otherwise untouched. The crowd cheered, causing anger to boil in Cassius. The girl's neck was now in the crook of his elbow; a grim headlock.

"Release her and surrender Cassius," said Jenny proudly putting one hand on her hip and aiming the missile bracelet at him "There's no victory for you here."

"You see, Miss Jenny, the Cluster Initiative has changed. We don't make negotiations." Cassius spoke in an eerie, psychotic monotone "And we don't take prisoners."

With the slightest tweak of the machine's arm, all of the bones in the young girl's cervical column were crushed, severing her spinal cord and killing her without her knowing. The crowd gasped, Jenny's eyes widened in terror, but soon turned to rage.

"You Bastard!" as she charged at him, her bracelet transformed into her circular saw, one similar to Cassius's own. Cassius did not move; he instead caught the spinning saw in his massive claw, the blade instantly dulled as it spun relentlessly into his elephantine palm. Jenny could not break free from his grasp, even when pulling with her other arm. He laughed and delivered a crushing blow to her midsection. She toppled over, using this window of opportunity; Cassius delivered a roundhouse kick to her head, driving his heel into her jaw with jackhammer force. She was flat on her back. Cassius laughed as he picked her up by the body easily with his massive claw.

"What was that about no victory?" he spat with arrogant laughter. His other arm turned to the saw like Jenny's; he raised it above his head angled at her neck. "Now, you are finally going to meet your feeble demise, and your friends and associates can do nothing but watch as I rip every part from your body as a trophy to Vexus."

Jenny attempted to squirm out of his immense grip, but she had not nearly enough strength. The body reconstruction must have lowered her number of hydraulic fibers, making her weaker. As well, Cassius was unfeasibly strong and quick. He was never this powerful before the fall of Cluster Prime.

The blade now spun inches away from her neck, Kaeris watched in horror, unknowing of what to do. He had only one option to save her, he did not like it. He would save Jenny, but reveal his identity, and possibly jeopardize the mission. But he had to do it; it's what he saw in his vision. It's what was right.

He stood up, the opening in the gym revealed the clouds to be circling like the eye of a hurricane. Lightening crashed from nowhere, thunder rolled like a freight train. Kaeris was mumbling words of an unknown language under his breath, his fists clenched. As the winds from above began to blow light objects in the room around, Cassius stopped, looking up at the unusual weather. But then Cassius met eyes with Kaeris.

"No," whispered Cassius "Not now."

"Das'Illiath Kora'Motrrea" Shouted Kaeris, his eyes glowing bright blue. Kaeris raised a fist to Cassius, whom dropped Jenny and clasped his neck and chest, as if he were suffocating. Jenny lay on the ground, watching in trepidation as oils and vital fluids poured from rivets, crevasses and the eyes slots of Cassius. Kaeris raise his other hand; his eyes lit with power and quickly closed it into a fist. The armor of Cassius imploded in sync with Kaeris's movements. The thick metal shielding of Cassius crunched up onto his frame like aluminum foil, squirting black oils and hydraulic fluids from every part of his body. The vital juices of the machine sprayed across Jenny's face and chest. She didn't care about that now, she now looked at Kaeris, whose blue eyes were now blank white and ablaze as he walked over to the squirming and sickly wreckage that could once have identified as Cassius.

Kaeris cocked his head at Cassius, whose joints had all but given up on him. He jolted and rolled on his back, making pitiful noises that could be perceived as cries of dying agony.

"We should have annihilated you inbred swine when we had the chance." Said Kaeris in a daemonic voice that was not his own. Cassius's eyeless face showed no emotion, but his death throes increased with higher desperation: a sign of deep, in-beaded fear. A whooping noise was released from the speakers of Cassius as Kaeris extended his hand over the dying machine, his palm down. Thunder rolled in the sky as a single bolt, hotter than the sun fired from the palm of Kaeris and utterly ruined what remained of Cassius's head, leaving only a smoldering crater at the top of a headless machine corpse.

Kaeris loosened his muscles and wiped the small amount of blood from his nose caused by the release of the psychic energy it took to destroy the iron will of Cassius. His eyes returned to their normal color as he looked upon a crowd that no longer cheered, but cowered. He walked over to Jenny, her gorgeous dress sullied by the vital fluids of Cassius. He reached his hand out to help her up, she slapped his hand away. She looked at him with a mix of uncontrollable emotions; fear, confusion, inquisition, anger, hate, sorrow, epiphany. At the apex of such emotional turmoil, she only muttered three short words:

"W-what… are you?"

_**R&R Please **_____


End file.
